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.

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
21 Apr 2026 English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: motion to disagree to Lords Amendment 98 No 287–150
21 Apr 2026 English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: motion to disagree to Lords Amendment 41 No 284–149
21 Apr 2026 English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: motion to disagree to Lords Amendment 37 No 291–144
21 Apr 2026 English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: motion to disagree to Lords Amendment 36 No 288–147
21 Apr 2026 English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: motion to disagree to Lords Amendment 26 No 287–149
21 Apr 2026 English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: motion to disagree to Lords Amendment 13 No 297–147
21 Apr 2026 English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: motion to disagree to Lords Amendment 4 No 298–152
21 Apr 2026 English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: motion to disagree to Lords Amendment 2 No 293–155
20 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: Amendments (a) to (b) in lieu of Lords Amendments 359 and 439 No 292–158
20 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: Amendments (a) and (b) in lieu of Lords Amendment 342 No vote 294–61
20 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: Amendments (a) to (d) in lieu of Lords Amendment 11 No 294–156
20 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: Amendment (a) to Amendment 2B and Amendment (b) to Amendment 2C in lieu of Lords Amendments 2D and 2E No 293–159
15 Apr 2026 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Amendments (a) to (c) in lieu of Lords Amendment 106 No 248–139
15 Apr 2026 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Amendments (a) to (e) in lieu of Lords Amendment 102 No 259–136
15 Apr 2026 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 41B No 254–144
15 Apr 2026 Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Amendments (a) to (f) in lieu of Lords Amendment 38 No vote 256–150
15 Apr 2026 Pension Schemes Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 78 No 277–150
15 Apr 2026 Pension Schemes Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 77 No 271–95
15 Apr 2026 Pension Schemes Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 43 No 273–159
15 Apr 2026 Pension Schemes Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 35 No 275–159
15 Apr 2026 Pension Schemes Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 26 No 269–162
15 Apr 2026 Pension Schemes Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 15 No 276–155
15 Apr 2026 Pensions Scheme Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 5 No 269–103
15 Apr 2026 Pension Schemes Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 1 No 278–158
14 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: motion to agree with all remaining Lords Amendments No vote 247–21

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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