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Official portrait of Helen Whately

Helen Whately

Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, since 7 May 2015

Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Helen Whately is the Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, and has been an MP continually since 7 May 2015. She currently undertakes the role of Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

Contact them on the parliamentary site →

Scorecard

69.7% Attendance Below the median of MPs who vote
401 Votes cast out of 575 divisions
174 No vote recorded absent, abstaining, paired or unable to attend
1 Against their own party divisions where they voted the other way to most Conservative MPs
8 Interests declared 6 at £5,000 or more
588 Debates spoken in 537 written questions tabled

Ranked 371 of 638 MPs for attendance. The median of MPs who vote is 72.3%. Ministers and front-benchers vote less often than backbenchers for reasons of office rather than absenteeism, and Parliament does not publish reasons for any absence — the ranking is a starting point for a question, not an answer to one.

Voting record

575 divisions since they took their seat, newest first.

DateQuestionTheir voteResult
15 Jul 2026 Draft Code of Practice on Electronic and Workplace Ballots for Statutory Trade Union Ballots deferred division No 330–109
15 Jul 2026 Draft Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026 deferred division No 330–109
14 Jul 2026 Public Office (Accountability) Bill Report Stage: Amendment 19 Aye 104–412
14 Jul 2026 Public Office (Accountability) Bill Report Stage: Amendment 199 Aye 102–409
14 Jul 2026 Public Office (Accountability) Bill Report Stage: Amendment 3 No vote 93–323
13 Jul 2026 Immigration and Asylum Bill: Second Reading No vote 264–90
13 Jul 2026 Immigration and Asylum Bill: Reasoned Amendment to Second Reading Aye 97–358
8 Jul 2026 Draft Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026 deferred division No 283–182
8 Jul 2026 Draft Supply of Machinery (Safety) (Amendment etc.) and the EU Machinery Regulation (Enforcement etc. in Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026 deferred division No 317–103
8 Jul 2026 Draft Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 (Establishment of Schools) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2026 deferred division No 369–102
7 Jul 2026 Opposition Day: Early release of prisoners Aye 115–0
6 Jul 2026 National Security (State Threats) Bill: motion to agree to Lords Amendment 1 No 394–85
1 Jul 2026 Taxation (Energy and Vehicles) Bill Committee: New Clause 5 Aye 177–308
1 Jul 2026 Taxation (Energy and Vehicles) Bill Committee: New Clause 4 Aye 173–282
1 Jul 2026 Taxation (Energy and Vehicles) Bill Committee: New Clause 2 No vote 80–281
1 Jul 2026 Draft Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) (Amendment) Order 2026 deferred division No vote 318–107
1 Jul 2026 Draft Employment Tribunal (Extension of Time Limits) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026 deferred division No vote 322–107
24 Jun 2026 Draft Climate Change Act 2008 (Credit Limit) Order 2026 No 330–93
24 Jun 2026 Draft Climate Change Act 2008 (International Aviation and International Shipping) Regulations 2026 No 329–94
24 Jun 2026 Draft Carbon Budget Order 2026 No 332–94
24 Jun 2026 Customs (Tariff and Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Regulations 2026 deferred division No 323–160
23 Jun 2026 Opposition Day: Puberty blockers Aye 112–283
23 Jun 2026 Opposition Day Motion: Defence spending and readiness - Prime Minister's Amendment No 294–110
23 Jun 2026 Opposition day: Defence spending and readiness Aye 108–307
22 Jun 2026 Armed Forces Bill Report Stage: Amendment 11 Aye 171–322

Declared financial interests

Quoted in full from the Register of Members' Financial Interests. Entries where the largest figure is £5,000 or more are marked. A declaration is not a wrongdoing — the register exists precisely so that these things are visible.

2. (a) Support linked to an MP but received by a local party organisation or indirectly via a central party organisation

Name of donor: Benjamin Tansey
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £3,000 financial support towards the cost of salary for a researcher to assist the work of the Shadow Secretary of State.
Donor status: individual
(Registered 30 June 2026)

On the register since 14 Jul 2026

£7,500

Name of donor: Richard Oldfield
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £7,500 financial support towards the cost of salary for a member of staff to assist the work of the Shadow Secretary of State.
Donor status: individual
(Registered 25 March 2026)

On the register since 14 Apr 2026

£5,000

Name of donor: Lord Michael Farmer
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £5,000 financial support towards the cost of salary for a member of staff to assist the work of the Shadow Secretary of State.
Donor status: individual
(Registered 25 March 2026)

On the register since 14 Apr 2026

£7,500

Name of donor: Richard Oldfield
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £7,500 financial support towards the cost of salary for a member of staff to assist the work of the Shadow Secretary of State.
Donor status: individual
(Registered 5 January 2026)

On the register since 25 Mar 2026

£10,000

Name of donor: Edward Sells
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £10,000 financial support towards the cost of salary for a member of staff to assist my work as a Shadow Secretary of State.
Donor status: individual
(Registered 24 February 2026)

On the register since 10 Mar 2026

£5,000

Name of donor: Edward Garton Woods
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £5,000 financial support towards the cost of salary for a member of staff to assist my work as a Shadow Secretary of State.
Donor status: individual
(Registered 21 January 2026)

On the register since 3 Feb 2026

£5,000

Name of donor: Lord (Stanley) Fink
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £5,000 financial support towards the cost of salary for a member of staff to assist the work of the Shadow Secretary of State.
Donor status: individual
(Registered 14 January 2026)

On the register since 20 Jan 2026

8. Miscellaneous

My husband, Marcus Whately, is Chief Executive of GrowUp Farms, a salad producer.
(Registered 17 September 2024)

On the register since 2 Oct 2024

The same register on parliament.uk →

Debates

588 debates contributed to in total. The ten most recent:

Sources: Commons Votes API, Members API and the Register of Members' Financial Interests, all published by Parliament under the Open Parliament Licence. This member's register and debate record were last refreshed 3 Aug 2026. How every figure is worked out →

Machine-readable: JSON for this MP.

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