Kerry Pollard

Kerry Pollard
Member of Parliament
for St Albans
In office
1 May 1997 – 5 May 2005
Preceded by Peter Lilley
Succeeded by Anne Main
Personal details
Born (1944-04-27) 27 April 1944
Political party Labour
Spouse(s) Marillyn Pollard

Kerry Patrick Pollard (born 27 April 1944) is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was elected at the 1997 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for St Albans, and held the seat until his defeat at the 2005 general election.

Early life

Pollard was brought up in Rochdale. He attended the Catholic Thornleigh Salesian College in Astley Bridge, Bolton. He has an Open University BA in Industrial Relations and Urban Regeneration.

Before Parliament

Pollard was a Housing Association director, interested in social justice and social inclusion. He came in third place at his first attempt to be elected as MP for the St Albans constituency in the 1992 general election.[1]

Non-political career

Political career

Parliamentary career

Kerry Pollard raised an early day motion in the House of Commons on Monday 19 April 1999 in support of Bradford & Bingley Building Society's fight to stay mutual. He urged Bradford & Bingley members to vote against moves to force Britain's second-largest building society to convert to a bank, saying "the early day motion will express the fear that were Bradford & Bingley Building Society to become a bank, the entire building society movement will be damaged directly."

In the UK Parliament, Pollard opposed the US-led wars in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, but his most consistent aberrations from the party instructions were over benefits - he voted on several occasions against cuts in state benefits. Pollard chaired the all-party small business group.

A Christian socialist, Pollard took a conservative line on questions of personal morality, he was a member of the all-party pro-life group and was one of a handful of Labour MPs to oppose the equalisation of the age of consent.

As an MP, he appeared on former BBC day time chat show Kilroy, contributing to topics such as the problem of personal debt, with comments including “Surely the banks have some sort of responsibility?”

After Parliament

Kerry Pollard joined the management board of Ridgehill Housing Association in 2005,[2] rising to become, upon merging with William Sutton Housing Association, the chair of William Sutton Homes.[3] Following the merger of the William Sutton Group and Affinity Homes Group on 1 October 2006, Pollard was removed as chair of William Sutton Homes on 25 April 2007, after he had complained to the Housing Association about the behaviour of the new parent company.[4]

Pollard is chair of the Labour Housing Group.[5]

2015 election

Kerry Pollard stood as the Labour candidate for the seat he lost in 2005 to Anne Main. He faced Main again. In May 2015, Main got 47% of the votes, Pollard got 23%, Sandy Walkington (Liberal Democrat) got 19% and Chris Wright (U.K. Independence Party) got 8%.[6]

Personal life

He married Maralyn Murphy in 1966, and they have five boys and two girls. They have lived in St Albans since 1969.

References

  1. ↑ "Kerry Pollard". BBC News. 16 October 2002. Retrieved 2007-08-03.
  2. ↑ "Review for the tenants". Ridgehill Housing Association. Winter 2005.
  3. ↑ "Ex-MP calls time on political career". Herts Advertiser. 2006-10-12. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  4. ↑ Hutchings, E. (2007-07-19). "'Whistleblowers ousted from housing firm'". Borehamwood & Elstree Times. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  5. ↑ Labour Housing Group website, at http://www.labourhousing.co.uk/officers_ec_2015_16 .
  6. ↑ Google election results, at https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=kerry+pollard+2015+election&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4TSNA_enUS411US413&q=kerry+pollard+2015+election&gs_l=hp....0.0.1.301593...........0.rbGvAD9J12U .
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Peter Lilley		 Member of Parliament for St Albans
1997–2005 		Succeeded by
Anne Main
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