Sharon Hodgson

Sharon Hodgson (born Sharon Cohen 1 April 1966) is a British politician and is the Labour Member of Parliament for Gateshead East and Washington West.

Early life

Sharon Hodgson was born in Gateshead, Tyneside and was educated locally at the Greenwell Junior High School (became Lyndhurst County Secondary School in 1981 and closed in 1998) on Beacon Lough Road and Heathfield Senior High School (where Paul Gascoigne was in the year below - the school is now closed) on Durham Road (A167) in the town, where she got eight O levels. Her parents divorced when she was eight, and she moved with her mother to the former St Cuthbert's Village next to the Tyne. She started in the sixth form but left after a few weeks. Her mother had pressurised her into finding work as opposed to studying for A levels, so worked as an accounts clerk in Team Valley, earning £60 a week of which she gave £30 to her mother. She also later attended the Newcastle College and the Trades Union Congress Academy in London. She worked for Northern Rock in Gosforth then as a payroll and accounting clerk in various local companies, then became a full-time mother for a few years in the mid-1990s, then joining Labour Party until she became a party organiser in 1999. In 2000, she became the local Party organiser for two years in the Mitcham and Morden constituency, helping the sitting Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh to be re-elected at the 2001 General Election.

She was elected for two years as the women's officer within the Tyne Bridge Constituency Labour Party (CLP) in 1998. Later, in 2002 she was elected as the secretary of the Mitcham and Morden CLP in the London Borough of Merton.

Parliamentary career

In 2004 Hodgson was chosen as the Labour candidate for the 2005 General Election for Gateshead East and Washington West. Her selection followed the retirement of the sitting Labour MP Joyce Quin, and came about as a result of a controversial All-Women Shortlist.^[1] Hodgson held the seat with a majority of 13,407, and made her maiden speech on 25 May 2005.[1]

Following boundary changes the seat of Gateshead East and Washington West has been abolished and replaced by a new seat, Gateshead and Washington and Sunderland West at the next Parliamentary election. David Clelland the current MP for Tyne Bridge was chosen in December 2006 by Labour Party members to fight the new seat of Gateshead at the next general election.

Following her defeat in Gateshead, Hodgson announced her intention to contest and was selected as the candidate for the new Washington and Sunderland West in September 2007 which will be fought for the first time at the next UK general election.

As the Labour Party has decided that the selection will be by All Women Shortlist, it is anticipated that Washington and Sunderland West maybe the only seat in the Tyne and Wear sub-region represented by a female Labour Member of Parliament.

In parliament she has served as a member of both the deregulation and European scrutiny select committees since 2005, and from 2006 she has served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State for defence Bob Ainsworth.

Personal life

She married Alan Hodgson in June 1990 in Gateshead, they have a son (born January 1994) and a daughter (born November 1995).

References

External links

• Sharon Hodgson MP Official website of Sharon Hodgson MP
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Sharon Hodgson MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Sharon Hodgson MP
• BBC Politics

News items

• Selected for seat in July 2004