Kevin McKenna | |
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![]() Official portrait, 2024 | |
Member of Parliament for Sittingbourne and Sheppey | |
Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
Preceded by | Gordon Henderson |
Majority | 355 (0.9%) |
Personal details | |
Born | 1974 Erith |
Political party | Labour |
Education | University of Warwick King's College London |
Website | kevinmckenna |
Kevin McKenna is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sittingbourne and Sheppey since 2024. He flipped the seat from the Conservative Party.[1]
Early life and career
[edit]McKenna was born in Erith and grew up in Welling, in the London Borough of Bexley. He was educated at St Stephen's Catholic Primary School in Welling and Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School.
McKenna studied microbiology at the University of Warwick and later qualified as a registered nurse in the 1990s at the Nightingale Institute at King's College London, a career change he made after exposure to the work of nurses caring for his friends impacted by the AIDS epidemic.[2] He worked in the NHS as a frontline nurse in critical care in a number of London hospitals including University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and later in strategy on nationwide NHS programmes at NHS England.[2] In 2015, McKenna was a Darzi Fellow in clinical leadership.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, McKenna worked as a matron at NHS Nightingale Hospital London.[3]
McKenna was selected to stand in Bexley and Bromley at the 2024 London Assembly election, losing out to the incumbent Conservative Party where he reduced the Conservative majority at the election by over 10,000 votes.[4]
Personal life
[edit]McKenna lives in Sittingbourne with his husband.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ "Sittingbourne & Sheppey | General Election 2024". Sky News. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ a b Church, Edd (31 July 2024). "Nursing MPs: Kevin McKenna says nurses have been 'pushed so far'". Nursing Times. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
- ^ "Who are Kent's 12 new MPs?". Kent Online. 5 July 2024. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "Declaration of Result of Poll" (PDF). London Elects. 2 May 2024.
- ^ Kevin McKenna MP [@KMcKLabour] (7 July 2024). "Yesterday I went to Westminster for the first time, to start setting up as your MP" (Tweet). Retrieved 10 July 2024 – via Twitter.