Doug Henderson

For the Scottish National Party politician, see Douglas Henderson.

Douglas John Henderson, known as Doug Henderson, (born June 9, 1949) British politician and the Labour Member of Parliament for Newcastle North.

Doug Henderson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at the Waid Academy, Anstruther before going on later to study economics at both the Central College, Glasgow, and the University of Strathclyde. He was an apprentice engineer with Rolls-Royce in Glasgow for two years from 1966, before joining British Rail as a clerk for a year in 1968. After university he joined the National Union of General and Municipal Workers trade union as a research officer in 1973 and remained employed by the union (and its successor the GMB Union) until he was elected to parliament 24 years later. In 1975 he was appointed as the GMB's Scottish organiser, moving to become the organiser in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1985.

He was the chairman of the Scottish Labour Party in 1984 and was elected to the House of Commons at the 1987 General Election for Newcastle North in Tyneside following the deselection of the sitting Labour MP Bob Brown. Henderson held the seat with a majority of 5,243 and has remained the MP there since.

In parliament he was promoted to the frontbench by Neil Kinnock in 1988 as a spokesman on trade and industry, until he moved under the new leadership of John Smith to serve as a spokesman on the environment in 1992. Following Smith's death in 1994 he was moved by Tony Blair to become the Deputy shadow Leader of the House of Commons and spokesman on John Major's citizens' charter. In 1995 he became a home affairs spokesman. When the first Blair government was elected at the 1997 General Election he was made a Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with the brief of Minister for Europe, before moving to the Ministry of Defence in 1998 as the Minister for the armed forces. He was sacked in 1999 amid speculation that his close association with and perceived loyalty to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown eventually cost him his government job, and he became an increasingly outspoken backbencher. He is the vice chairman of the all party groups on the Philippines; Malaysia; and the chocolate and confectionery industry.

Most importantly, Doug Henderson is a Falkirk season ticket holder.

He married Janet Margaret Graham in 1974 and they had a son and a daughter before they divorced, he was remarried in 2002 to Geraldine Daly.

He spoke in favour of government plans to replace Trident in the debate on 14 March 2007.

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