Kerry Patrick Pollard (born 27 April 1944) is a Labour politician in the United Kingdom. He was elected at the general election of

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

as Member of Parliament for

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, and held the seat until his defeat at the general election of

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

Early life

Pollard was brought up in Rochdale. He attended the Catholic Thornleigh Salesian College in Astley Bridge, Bolton. He has an Open University Bachelor of Arts degree in industrial relations and urban regeneration.

Before Parliament

Pollard was a Housing Association director, interested in social justice and social inclusion. He finished in third place in what would mark his first attempt to be elected as the MP for the constituency of St Albans at the general election of

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

. From 1962 to 1992, Pollard was a

Chemical Engineer In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is a professional, equipped with the knowledge of chemical engineering, who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products and deals with the ...

for British Gas plc. He was subsequently Chief Executive of Cherry Tree Housing Association from 1992 to 1997. Since 1984, he has been a magistrate. In 1982, he became a councillor on St Albans District Council, where he remained until 1997. He was also a councillor on Hertfordshire County Council from 1989 to 1997.

Parliamentary career

Kerry Pollard raised an early day motion in the House of Commons on Monday 19 April 1999, in support of Bradford & Bingley Building Society's fight to stay mutual. He urged

Bradford & Bingley Bradford & Bingley plc was a British bank with headquarters in the West Yorkshire town of Bingley. The bank was formed in December 2000 by demutualisation of the Bradford & Bingley Building Society following a vote of the building society's mem ...

members to vote against moves to force Britain's second largest building society to convert to a bank, saying "the early day motion will express the fear that were Bradford & Bingley Building Society to become a bank, the entire building society movement will be damaged directly." In the United Kingdom Parliament, Pollard opposed the wars led by the United States in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, but his most consistent aberrations from the party instructions were over benefits – he voted on several occasions against cuts in

state benefits Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

. Pollard chaired the all party

small business Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...

group. A Christian socialist, Pollard took a conservative line on questions of personal morality: he was a member of the all party

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...

group, and was one of a handful of Labour MPs to oppose the equalisation of the

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim ...

. As an MP, he appeared on former BBC day time chat show ''

Kilroy Kilroy may refer to: * Kilroy (surname) * ''Kilroy'' (TV series), a BBC day time chat show hosted by Robert Kilroy-Silk * Kilroy, a main character beginning with Season 2 in the television series '' Taken'' * Kilroy's College, a distance educatio ...

'', contributing to topics such as the problem of personal debt, with comments including "Surely the banks have some sort of responsibility?".

After Parliament

Kerry Pollard joined the management board of Ridgehill Housing Association in 2005, rising to become, upon merging with William Sutton Housing Association, the chair of William Sutton Homes. Following the merger of the William Sutton Group and Affinity Homes Group on 1 October 2006, Pollard was removed as chair of William Sutton Homes on 25 April 2007, after he had complained to the Housing Association about the behaviour of the new

parent company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

. Pollard chaired the ''Labour Housing Group'' until 2016.

Further election attempts

In the 2015 general election, Pollard stood again as the Labour Party candidate for the St. Albans constituency. He polled second with 23%, below the Conservative Party candidate and incumbent

Anne Main Anne Margaret Main (born 17 May 1957) is a Conservative Party politician who formerly served as the Member of Parliament for St Albans in Hertfordshire. She was elected at the general election of 2005, and was re-elected in 2010, 2015 and ...

, who unseated him in 2005, with 47%. A second attempt in the

2017 general election This national electoral calendar for 2017 lists the national/federal elections held in 2017 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *5 November ...

saw Pollard fare worse; the Labour Party retained 23% of the vote, but fell to third place behind Liberal Democrat candidate Daisy Cooper (who would be elected to the seat in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

) with 32%, and the incumbent Main at 43%.

Personal life

He married Maralyn Murphy in 1966, and they have five sons and two daughters. They have lived in St Albans since 1969.

References

External links

*
Kerry Pollard MP for St Albans - dead link

TheyWorkForYou.com (Kerry Pollard)

Parliamentary Voting Record — Kerry Pollard

Kerry talks around the houses (BBC)

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard, Kerry 1944 births Alumni of the Open University Catholic socialists Members of Hertfordshire County Council English Christian socialists English Roman Catholics Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Living people People educated at Thornleigh Salesian College People from Rochdale UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005