Gordon Henderson | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2020 | |
| Member of Parliament for Sittingbourne and Sheppey | |
| Assumed office 6 May 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Derek Wyatt |
| Majority | 24,479 (47.6%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 January 1948[1] Gillingham, Kent, England[2] |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Children | 3 |
| Occupation | Operations manager, contracts officer, store manager |
| Website | gordonhendersonmp |
Gordon Henderson (born 27 January 1948) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Sittingbourne and Sheppey constituency in Kent since the 2010 general election. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Professional career
Henderson left school at 15 and started work as a stockroom assistant in a Woolworths shop in Chatham. He advanced through the ranks of the company, becoming a senior store manager. Henderson left Woolworths in 1979 after 15 years with the company.
After leaving Woolworths Henderson went through a range of jobs and ran his own restaurant in South Africa. He was also a senior contracts officer for GEC Marconi, and worked for a Rochester based wine company. Before entering parliament he worked as an operations manager for an alcohol-based gifts company.[3]
Political career
Henderson has a long-standing interest in politics. He is a fully qualified Conservative Party political agent and was the constituency agent for North Thanet MP, Roger Gale.
Henderson has served as deputy leader of Swale Borough Council twice and was also a member of Kent County Council,[4] during which time he sat both on the education committee and the Kent Police Authority. In 2001, Henderson contested the seat of Luton South; he was unsuccessful, losing by 10,000 votes to the incumbent Labour MP Margaret Moran. In 2005, Henderson contested the Sittingbourne and Sheppey seat and came second, losing by only 79 votes to the incumbent Labour MP Derek Wyatt. In 2010, Henderson once again stood for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, this time beating Wyatt, and receiving a 12,383 majority (50.5% of the vote)[3]
He was a supporter of the Better Off Out campaign which called for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. In 2010, he stated that the non-Conservative politician he most admired was Nigel Farage.[5] In 2014, Henderson responded to speculation about a possible defection to UKIP by issuing a statement saying defection was something he had considered, but he viewed their other policies as "muddled and contradictory".[6]
During the 2019 General Election Henderson increased his vote share at the election by over 7%. He increased his majority from 15,211 to 24,479.
In March 2023, Henderson announced he would retire at the next general election.[4]
Personal life
Henderson was born in the Gillingham. He is married with three children, and has seven grandchildren. Henderson has lived on the Isle of Sheppey for over 30 years. He is a long time supporter of Gillingham F.C. and Partick Thistle F.C. Henderson has been involved in local voluntary work, as an instructor in the Army Cadet Force, as a director of the SWIM training centre in Sittingbourne and as a school governor at Eastchurch Primary School in Sheppey and the Cheyne Middle School in Sheppey. He is currently chairman of Litter Angels, which holds annual workshops in primary schools across Sittingbourne and Sheppey and runs an anti-litter poster competition.[3]
References
- ↑ "Gordon Henderson MP". BBC Democracy Live. BBC. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
- ↑ "Who's Who". Ukwhoswho.com. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
- 1 2 3 "Gordon Henderson". www.gordonhendersonmp.co.uk.
- 1 2 "Gordon Henderson to stand down as MP at next general election". BBC News. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
- ↑ "Gordon Henderson MP answers ConHome's Twenty Questions for the Class of 2010 Tory MPs". Conservativehome.blogs.com. 9 August 2010. Archived from the original on 14 August 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
- ↑ Swinford, Stephen. "Tory MP: I considered defecting to Ukip but party is 'muddled and contradictory'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 28 March 2015.