Sharon Hodgson

Early life

Hodgson was born in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear and was educated locally at Greenwell Junior High School and Heathfield Senior High School, where she obtained eight O-Levels. After school she worked as an accounts clerk in the Team Valley, then attended Newcastle College and the Trades Union Congress Academy in London.

Later she worked for Northern Rock in Gosforth, and then as a payroll and accounting clerk for local companies. After becoming a full-time mother for a few years in the mid-1990s, and volunteering for the Labour Party in Stockton-on-Tees during the 1997 General Election campaign, 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. Before becoming an MP herself, Hodgson worked as Labour Link Officer for UNISON.

She was elected for two years as the women's officer within the Tyne Bridge Constituency Labour Party (CLP) in 1998. 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 Gateshead East and Washington West at the 2005 General Election. Her selection followed the retirement of the sitting Labour MP Joyce Quin, and came about as a result of an All-Women Shortlist. Hodgson held the seat with a majority of 13,407, and gave her maiden speech on 25 May 2005.

Following boundary changes, the seat of Gateshead East and Washington West was abolished and replaced by two new seats, Gateshead and Washington and Sunderland West at the 2010 general election. David Clelland, then MP for Tyne Bridge was chosen in December 2006 by Labour Party members to become the candidate in the Gateshead constituency at the next election.

Following her failure to be selected for Gateshead, Hodgson announced her intention to run for selection as the Labour Party candidate for the new Washington and Sunderland West seat in September 2007, and she was selected. She became the seat's MP in the 2010 general election.

In Parliament, she has served on several select committees since her election in 2005, including the North East Regional Committee and the Children Schools and Families Committee. She has also served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Liam Byrne in the Home Office, Bob Ainsworth at the Ministry of Defence and Dawn Primarolo at the Department of Health. In June 2009, Hodgson was promoted to the position of assistant Government Whip.

In opposition, the Labour Leader, then Ed Miliband, appointed Hodghson to the Shadow Children and Families Office in October 2010. Following Jeremy Corbyn's 2016 re-election as Leader of the Labour Party, she became the Shadow Minister for Public Health.