Eileen Gordon ('' née'' Leatt; born 22 October 1946) is a former

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

in the United Kingdom, who represented

Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romfo ...

from 1997 to 2001.

Early life and education

Gordon was born in Islington, the daughter of Charles and Margaret Rose Leatt (née Mallett).General Register Office; United Kingdom; Reference: Volume 5c, Page 1860. Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2007 atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. She was educated at

Harold Hill Harold Hill is a suburban area in the London Borough of Havering, East London. northeast of Charing Cross. It is a district centre in the London Plan. The name refers to King Harold II, who held the manor of Havering-atte-Bower, and who was k ...

Grammar School, Shoreditch Comprehensive School, and

Westminster College, Oxford Westminster College was a teacher training college and college of higher education in England. The college was founded in London in 1851 as a training institute for teachers for Wesleyan Methodist schools, but moved to Oxford in 1959. Before t ...

(Cert.Ed.).

Career

She worked as a teacher for the Mawney School in

. At the 1986 local elections, Gordon and her husband Tony were the Labour candidates for Collier Row, centred on the area of that name in

Havering The London Borough of Havering () in East London, England, forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 259,552 inhabitants; the principal town is Romford, while other communities are Hornchurch, Upminster, Collier Row and Rainham. The ...

(part of the

constituency). However, both council seats were held by the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. Gordon was an assistant to the Labour MP for

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

, Tony Banks, from 1990 to 1997. She contested the Conservative-held seat of

for Labour at the 1992 general election, but was unsuccessful. In

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, she stood for election to

Havering Council The London Borough of Havering () in East London, England, forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 259,552 inhabitants; the principal town is Romford, while other communities are Hornchurch, Upminster, Collier Row and Rainham. The ...

again, this time for Gidea Park (named for the area of the same name). The 1992 general election had been her party's fourth loss in a row, but in

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 ...

, as part of the landslide victory spearheaded by party leader

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

, Gordon won Romford, becoming the first Labour elected MP for the seat since

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

. Whilst in

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

, she was a member of the Broadcasting Select Committee from 1998 to 2001, and the

Health Select Committee The Health and Social Care Select Committee (abbreviated to HSC, HSCC and HSCSC) is a Departmental Select Committee of the British House of Commons, the lower house of the United Kingdom Parliament. Its remit is to examine the policy, administra ...

, from 1999 to 2001. However, despite Blair winning a second term as

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

at the subsequent 2001 election, Gordon lost her seat to the Conservative candidate

Andrew Rosindell Andrew Richard Rosindell MP (; born 17 March 1966) is a British Conservative politician. He became the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Romford constituency in Greater London in 2001. He has been the international director of the European ...

. It was one of the few Labour losses at that election, which saw her party retain its large majority from the 1997 election. Following her election defeat, she returned to work as a researcher for Tony Banks, who left the House of Commons at the 2005 general election, becoming a member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

until his death in 2006.

Personal life

In 1969, Gordon married Tony Gordon; the couple had a son and daughter. Tony was elected to Havering Borough Council in 1990, representing Oldchurch in Romford until 1998. He died in 2005.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Eileen 1946 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Romford UK MPs 1997–2001 Politics of the London Borough of Havering Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies 20th-century British women politicians 21st-century British women politicians 20th-century English women 20th-century English people 21st-century English women 21st-century English people Alumni of Westminster College, Oxford