Gordon Henderson

Gordon Henederson has been the Conservative MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey since 2010. Born in 1948, Gordon Henderson left school at 15 to work as a stockroom assistant in Woolworths in Chatham. He was with the company for 15 years, eventually becoming a senior store manager when he left in 1979. He worked in a variety of jobs before entering parliament including running a restaurant in South Africa, as a senior contracts officer for GEC Marconi and as an operations manager for a gifts wholesalers. He served as deputy leader of Swale Borough Council twice and was on Kent County Council. In the 2001 general election, Henderson unsuccessfully contested Luton South, and in 2005 he contested Sittingbourne and Sheppey, which he lost by just 79 votes. In 2010 he stood again, this time winning with a majority of 12,383 on a swing of 12.7 per cent. He joined the Regulatory Reform Committee after his election and remained on the committee until 2015. He voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum and was a supporter of the Better Off Out campaign. He once said that the non-Conservative politician that he admired the most was Nigel Farage but issued a statement to deny speculation that he would defect to UKIP. Henderon voted against Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement at the first two votes, but voted in favour of it at the third. He backed Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership contest. He was re-elected later that year with a much increased majority of 24,479.