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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
27 Oct 2025 Victims and Courts Bill Report Stage: New Clause 4 Aye 152–337
21 Oct 2025 Sentencing Bill Committee: New Clause 30 No 77–390
21 Oct 2025 Sentencing Bill Committee: New Clause 9 Aye 104–317
21 Oct 2025 Sentencing Bill Committee: New Clause 6 Aye 167–313
21 Oct 2025 Sentencing Bill Committee: Amendment 24 Aye 182–307
21 Oct 2025 Sentencing Bill Committee: Clause 1, as amended, stand part No 389–102
21 Oct 2025 Sentencing Bill Committee: Amendment 46 Aye 105–381
20 Oct 2025 Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill: Third Reading No 320–171
20 Oct 2025 Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill Committee: New Clause 1 Aye 172–322
20 Oct 2025 Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill Committee: Clause 2 stand part No 318–174
20 Oct 2025 Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill Committee: Amendment 9 No vote 83–319
20 Oct 2025 Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill Committee: Amendment 7 Aye 174–321
15 Oct 2025 Sustainable Aviation Fuel Remaining Stages: Amendment 9 Aye 160–324
15 Oct 2025 Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill Remaining Stages: Amendment 8 Aye 151–319
15 Oct 2025 Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill Remaining Stages: New Clause 5 No vote 78–316
14 Oct 2025 Mental Health Bill Report Stage: Amendment 41 Aye 164–333
14 Oct 2025 Mental Health Bill Report Stage: Amendment 40 Aye 163–339
14 Oct 2025 Mental Health Bill Report Stage New Clause 26 No vote 78–327
16 Sep 2025 Sentencing Bill: Second Reading No vote 340–77
16 Sep 2025 Sentencing Bill: Reasoned Amendment on Second Reading No vote 78–292
16 Sep 2025 Child poverty strategy (removal of two child limit): Ten Minute Rule Motion No vote 89–79
15 Sep 2025 Employment Rights Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 121 No vote 316–161
15 Sep 2025 Employment Rights Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 62 No vote 330–161
15 Sep 2025 Employment Rights Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 61 No vote 330–161
15 Sep 2025 Employment Rights Bill: Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 60 No vote 318–170

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:

Money declared to them

1 donation accepted personally since 4 Jul 2024, worth £2,450 in total — from the Electoral Commission's register, which is a separate register from the one above. Money given to their party is not counted here; this is money declared to them.

AcceptedRecipientDonorTypeValue
25 Apr 2025 Helen Whately MP sitting MP Richard Chesson Individual Cash £2,450

Where the public money goes — contracts and donations →

Sources: Commons Votes API, Members API and the Register of Members' Financial Interests, all published by Parliament under the Open Parliament Licence; donations from the Electoral Commission's register. 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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