Sharon Hodgson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sharon Hodgson (born April 1, 1966) is a British politician and is the Labour Member of Parliament for Gateshead East and Washington West.

Sharon Hodgson was born in Gateshead, Tyneside and was educated locally at the Greenwell and Heathfield schools in the town. She also attended the Newcastle College and the Trades Union Congress Academy in London. She worked as a payroll and accounting clerk in various local companies before joining Labour Party until she became an Organiser in 1999. In 2000, she became the local Party organiser for two years in the Mitcham and Morden constituency, helping the sitting Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh to be re-elected at the 2001 General Election.

She was elected for two years as the women's officer within the Tyne Bridge Constituency Labour Party (CLP) in 1998. In 2002 she was elected as the secretary of the Mitcham and Morden CLP in the London Borough of Merton until her election to the House of Commons at the 2005 General Election for Gateshead East and Washington West following the retirement of the sitting Labour MP Joyce Quin. Sharon Hodgson held the seat with a majority of 13,407, and made her maiden speech on May 25, 2005.[1]

Following boundary changes the seat of Gateshead East and Washington West will be replaced by a new seat, Gateshead at the next Parliamentary election. David Clelland the current MP for Tyne Bridge has been chosen to fight the seat for the Labour Party at the next election.

Following her defeat in Gateshead, Sharon Hodgson announced her intention to contest the selection for Washington and Sunderland West, a new constituency formed at the time of the next general election. This seat will be fought for the first time at the UK general election of 2009 or 2010.

As the Labour Party has decided that the selection will be by All Women Shortlist, it is anticipated that Washington and Sunderland West would then be the only seat in the Tyne and Wear sub-region represented by a female Member of Parliament.

In parliament she has served as a member of both the deregulation and European scrutiny select committees since 2005, and from 2006 she has served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Office minister Liam Byrne. She is married and has two children.