Eileen Gordon (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Leatt; born 22 October 1946) is a former Labour Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, who represented

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

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 Grammar School,

Shoreditch Shoreditch is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Hackney alongside neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets, which are also perceived as part of the area due to historic ecclesiastical links. Shoreditch lies just north ...

Comprehensive School, and Westminster College, Oxford (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 (part of the

constituency). However, both council seats were held by the Conservative Party. Gordon was an assistant to the Labour MP for

West Ham West Ham is a district in East London, England and is in the London Borough of Newham. It is an inner-city suburb located east of Charing Cross. The area was originally an ancient parish formed to serve parts of the older Manor of Ham, a ...

, 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 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, she stood for election to Havering Council 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 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, as part of the

landslide victory A landslide victory is an election result in which the winning Candidate#Candidates in elections, candidate or political party, party achieves a decisive victory by an overwhelming margin, securing a very large majority of votes or seats far beyo ...

spearheaded by

party leader In a governmental system, a party leader acts as the official representative of their political party, either to a legislature or to the electorate. Depending on the country, the individual colloquially referred to as the "leader" of a politica ...

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

, 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 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

. Whilst in

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, 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, administ ...

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

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

at the subsequent 2001 election, Gordon lost her seat to the Conservative candidate Andrew Rosindell. It was one of the few Labour losses at that election, which saw her party retain its large majority from the 1997 election.

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 politicians 21st-century English women 21st-century English politicians Alumni of Westminster College, Oxford