Gareth Johnson

Gareth Johnson is the Conservative MP for Dartford, having previously worked as a solicitor for the Magistrates Court Service in his constituency. In 2001, he unsuccessfully contested Lewisham West for the Conservatives and lost again four years later in Dartford by just 706 votes. Finally earning his seat in the 2010 general election on a swing of 11.6 per cent, Johnson went on to join the science and technology committee in 2012, the justice committee in 2013 and the joint committee on human rights in 2014. Johnson was re-elected in 2017 with an increased majority of 13,186 and became an assistant government whip in 2018. However, he resigned from this latter post in January 2019 citing his opposition to Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement. Now with an even stronger mandate from his constituency (he collected more than double the votes of his Labour opponent at the most recent general election), Johnson recently came under scrutiny for his outspoken opposition to providing free school meals in the holidays for children during the pandemic. He stated in parliament that the government had already been “generous” in its response to the crisis.