Gordon Henderson (politician)

Gordon Henderson (born 27 January 1948) is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the member of parliament (MP) for the Sittingbourne and Sheppey constituency in Kent, having won the seat at the 2010 general election.

Professional career

Henderson left school at 16 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 Henderson worked as an operations manager for an alcohol-based gifts company, the largest in the UK.^[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 Kent county councillor, 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. In 2005 Henderson contested the Sittingbourne and Sheppey seat and came second, losing by only 79 votes. In 2010 Henderson once again stood for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, this time he received a 12,383 majority (50.5% of the vote) ^[3]

He is a supporter of the Better Off Out campaign which calls for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. He has stated that the non-Conservative politician he most admires is Nigel Farage MEP, of UKIP.^[4] 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"^[5]

Personal life

Henderson was born in the Medway towns in Kent. He is married with three children, and seven grandchildren. Henderson has lived on the Isle of Sheppey for over 30 years. He is a long time supoorter of Gillingham Town F.C. and Partick Thistle F.C. Henderson is a keen supporter of the Swale Arts Forum, for the past two years he has contributed to the annual arts bursary awarded to local artists. Henderson has been involved also in local voluntary work, as an instructor in the Army Cadet Force, as a director of the SWIM training centre (Sittingbourne) and as a school governor at Eastchurch Primary School (Sheppey) and the Cheyne Middle School (Sheppey). He is currently director of the Swale Community Action Project, in this capacity Henderson is involved in organising the Litter Angels competition, which involves local youngster designing an anti-litter poster or writing a short story about litter.^[3]

References

External links

• Official website
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou