Chris and Lorraine Pond live in Gravesend and have three daughters, Their youngest, Madeleine, was born earlier this year in Darent Valley Hospital.

Chris was first elected MP for Gravesham in 1997 and then re-elected in 2001. He was made a Minister for Work and Pensions in 2003, where he has been helping to drive forward Labour’s programme of creating jobs and making sure pensioners have the dignity and security they deserve. He is currently standing as a candidate for re-election.

Before entering Parliament, Chris was Director of the Low Pay Unit for many years, campaigning for a national minimum wage and a better deal for hard working families. He also held various jobs teaching economics, including at Kent University, which came in handy when he joined Gordon Brown’s team at the Treasury in 1999.

Chris works hard for local and national charities, being named as Parliamentary Champion
for Macmillan Cancer Care last year and working with organisations like the Royal National
Institute for the Blind, helping to secure a major international conference ‘Vision 2005’ for them.

His work with local charities extends to running the London Marathon each year to raise money
for the Ellenor and Lions Hospices, Gravesend and Northfleet Age Concerns, Cancer Research
and the new Gurdwara. He has just completed his 8th London Marathon this year.

Among Chris’s campaigns while in Parliament, was to secure the Public Inquiry into the Marchioness disaster on behalf of the victims’ families. Working with the Marchioness Contact Group, he has helped to deliver improvements in river safety and through efforts of the Royal National Lifeboats Institute, lifeboats on the Thames, including those based at Gravesend.