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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
14 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 359 No 277–158
14 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 357 No vote 278–73
14 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 342 No vote 281–70
14 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 334 No 356–90
14 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 333 No 301–157
14 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 311 No 300–101
14 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 11 No 291–174
14 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 6 No 299–169
14 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 2 No 307–176
25 Mar 2026 Victims and Courts Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 6 No vote 290–163
25 Mar 2026 Victims and Courts Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 5 No vote 292–162
25 Mar 2026 Victims and Courts Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 4 No vote 300–149
25 Mar 2026 Victims and Courts Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 3 No vote 286–163
25 Mar 2026 Victims and Courts Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 2 No vote 295–162
25 Mar 2026 Victims and Courts Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 1 No vote 291–158
24 Mar 2026 Opposition Day: Defence Aye 98–306
24 Mar 2026 Opposition Day: Oil and gas Aye 108–297
23 Mar 2026 National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 6 No 278–164
23 Mar 2026 National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 5 No 281–167
23 Mar 2026 National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 3 No 280–164
23 Mar 2026 National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 2 No 279–167
23 Mar 2026 National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 1 No 280–161
18 Mar 2026 Opposition day: Student loans Aye 88–266
18 Mar 2026 Opposition day: Fuel duty Aye 103–259
18 Mar 2026 Draft Higher Education (Fee Limits and Fee Limit Condition) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 deferred division No vote 277–99

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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