Gerard Killen (born 1 May 1986), known as Ged Killen, is a Scottish

Labour and Co-operative Labour and Co-operative Party (often abbreviated Labour Co-op; cy, Llafur a'r Blaid Gydweithredol) is a description used by candidates in United Kingdom elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party. Candida ...

politician who served as

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 ...

(MP) for

Rutherglen and Hamilton West Rutherglen and Hamilton West is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which was created for the 2005 general election. It covers almost all of the former constituency of Glasgow Rutherglen and ...

from

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

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 ...

Early life

Killen was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, living in the

Gorbals The Gorbals is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, on the south bank of the River Clyde. By the late 19th century, it had become densely populated; rural migrants and immigrants were attracted by the new industries and employment opportun ...

before moving to

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

where he spent most of his youth. He attended

Trinity High School Trinity High School is the name of high schools: United Kingdom * Trinity High School, Renfrew, Renfrewshire, Scotland * Trinity High School, Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, Scotland * Trinity High School and Sixth Form Centre, in Redditch, England *Trini ...

Rutherglen Rutherglen (, sco, Ruglen, gd, An Ruadh-Ghleann) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having existed as a Lanarkshire burgh in its own ...

Political career

Killen joined the Labour Party in 2007 and first stood for public office as a candidate in the

2012 South Lanarkshire Council election Elections to South Lanarkshire Council took place on 3 May 2012 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. Labour retained their position as the largest party on the council as they gained three seat from 2007 but we ...

. Following the death of sitting SNP councillor Anne Higgins, Killen successfully contested the 2013 Rutherglen South ward by-election and was elected to

South Lanarkshire Council South Lanarkshire Council ( gd, Comhairle Siorrachd Lannraig a Deas) is the unitary authority serving the South Lanarkshire council area in Scotland. The council has its headquarters in Hamilton, has 16,000 employees, and a budget of almost £1b ...

aged 26. The by-election victory gave Labour an overall majority on the council. He was re-elected to the council at the 2017 local elections, this time in the Rutherglen Central and North ward. Killen won the

at the 2017 general election, achieving a narrow majority of 265 votes over incumbent SNP MP

Margaret Ferrier Margaret Ferrier (born 10 September 1960) is a Scottish politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutherglen and Hamilton West since 2019, and previously from 2015 to 2017. As the candidate for the Scottish National Party (SNP), Ferrie ...

. He made his maiden speech on 27 June 2017. During his tenure MP, Killen was an active campaigner for LGBT rights issues, men's mental health, and banking reform. On 13 June 2018, Killen and five other Labour MPs resigned their roles as frontbenchers for the Labour Party in protest at Labour's position on

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

. Labour Party leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

had instructed his MPs to abstain in a vote which the UK would remain in the single market by joining the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade As ...

(EEA). The MPs resigned and voted in favour of the EEA. At the 2019 general election, a swing of over 5% saw Ferrier regain Rutherglen and Hamilton West from Killen. Killen advocated for his party to back a

second Scottish independence referendum A second referendum (commonly referred to as indyref2) on independence from the United Kingdom (UK) has been proposed by the Scottish Government. An independence referendum was first held on 18 September 2014, with 55% voting "No" to independ ...

after his election defeat, arguing a future referendum was inevitable, but maintained his support for remaining in a "more federal UK". In September 2020, he called for

Richard Leonard Richard Leonard (born January 1962) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2017 to 2021. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), as one of the additional members for the Central Scotland ...

to resign as

Leader of the Scottish Labour Party The office of Leader of the Scottish Labour Party was established when the Scottish Parliament was formed in 1999 and prior to its inaugural election. Until the Murphy and Boyack review in 2011, the office was Leader of the Labour Party in the ...

despite nominating him in the 2017 leadership election, saying he had since changed from supporting Leonard's leadership due to deep worries of grassroots members. Killen supported

Monica Lennon Monica Lennon (' Ward; born 7 January 1981) is a Scottish politician who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Central Scotland region since 2016. A member of the Scottish Labour Party, she has served in various roles ...

in the

2021 Scottish Labour leadership election The 2021 Scottish Labour leadership election was triggered on 14 January 2021 by the resignation of Richard Leonard as leader of the Scottish Labour Party, who had led the party since 2017. Two candidates were nominated, Anas Sarwar and Moni ...

after urging her to run early in the contest. In anticipation of a by-election resulting from Margaret Ferrier's conduct in office, Killen was re-selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Rutherglen and Hamilton West in January 2021.

Personal life

Killen is gay, and married his husband Peter when they eloped in 2013. They hope to retire to Peter's hometown in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, which has influenced Killen's campaigning to equalise same-sex marriage laws between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Killen is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Killen, Gerard Living people People from Rutherglen People educated at Trinity High School, Rutherglen Scottish Roman Catholics Gay politicians LGBT members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom Scottish LGBT politicians Scottish Labour MPs UK MPs 2017–2019 Scottish Labour councillors 1986 births Politicians from South Lanarkshire Councillors in South Lanarkshire