Gerard Killen (born 1 May 1986) is a Scottish

Labour and Co-operative Labour and Co-operative Party (often abbreviated to Labour Co-op; ) is a description used by candidates in United Kingdom elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party. Candidates contest elections under an e ...

politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for

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

from

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Early life

Killen was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, living in the

Gorbals The Gorbals is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, and former burgh, 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 e ...

before moving to

Blantyre Blantyre is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with a population of 800,264 . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe. It is ...

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 * Trin ...

Rutherglen Rutherglen (; , ) 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 previously existed as a separate Lanarkshire burgh, in 1975 Rutherglen lo ...

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. 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 is the unitary authority serving the South Lanarkshire council area in Scotland. The council has its headquarters in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, has 16,000 employees, and an annual budget of almost £1bn. Th ...

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 who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutherglen and Hamilton West from 2015 to 2017, and again from 2019 to 2023. She was first elected to the House of Commons at the 20 ...

. 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 "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

. Labour Party leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

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 Asso ...

(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 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 to resign as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party 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 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, Scottish Labour Party, who had led the party 2017 Scottish Labour leadership election, since ...

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 In British politics, a prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) is a candidate selected by political parties to contest under individual Westminster constituencies in advance of a general election. The term originally came into use because of ...

for Rutherglen and Hamilton West in January 2021. In May 2023, he was replaced as candidate by

Michael Shanks Michael Garrett Shanks (born December 15, 1970) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his role as Daniel Jackson in the long-running military science fiction television series ''Stargate SG-1'' and as Dr Charles Harris in the Canadian medi ...

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 ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, 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 The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Killen, Ged Living people People from Rutherglen People educated at Trinity High School, Rutherglen Scottish Roman Catholics LGBTQ members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom Scottish gay politicians Labour Co-operative MPs for Scottish constituencies UK MPs 2017–2019 Scottish Labour councillors 1986 births Politicians from South Lanarkshire Councillors in South Lanarkshire