Kevin McKenna is the Labour MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, McKenna won 11,919 votes, representing 29.1% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Aisha Cuthbert, received 11,564 votes (28.2%), while the Reform UK candidate, William Fotheringham-Bray, secured 10,512 votes (25.6%). McKenna was duly elected with a majority of 355.

The Sittingbourne and Sheppey constituency is located in Kent, in the South East of England. The seat was held by the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2024, and before that by Labour from 1997 to 2010.

McKenna’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey was Gordon Henderson of the Conservative party. Henderson held the seat from 2010 to 2024.

Political Career

McKenna is a member of the House of Commons women and equalities select committee (since October 2025) – the committee responsible for holding the government to account on equality law and policy, including the Equality Act 2010, as well as cross government activity on equalities. It also scrutinises the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

In May 2026, McKenna was among the group of Labour MPs who publicly called for the prime minister, Keir Starmer, to resign or set out a clear timetable for his departure. The move followed the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru.

In a statement, McKenna said: “I had hoped not to have to say anything in public while the prime minister considered his position, but Jess Phillips’ resignation letter leaves me in a situation where I can no longer keep my views private.

“The idea that this Labour government would choose not to bring forward legislation to protect children from abuse online at the very earliest possible time is abhorrent.

“In our manifesto, we said that ‘children and young people face significant harm online’ and that we would be ‘bringing forward provisions as quickly as possible’.

“Jess Phillips’ letter shows that the prime minister has not lived up to that commitment. I am not just disappointed by this; I am truly angry.

“It is now time for a new prime minister to lead our party and to deliver on the commitments we made to this country.”

In June 2025, McKenna was one of 22 newly elected Labour MPs who co-signed a letter to the leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, and the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) calling for improved paternity leave for parliamentary staff. The letter, organised in collaboration with the campaign group The Dad Shift, argued that the current provision of two weeks’ paid leave was “unfair” and left parliament trailing behind leading private and public sector employers.

The letter said current rules meant MPs were “unable to support our staff appropriately at some of the most important times of their lives”.

They added: “Dads in our offices get just two weeks off, a situation that is unfair and puts parliament many steps behind top employers across the country.”

In response, a government spokesperson told PoliticsHome: “We are committed to making sure parents receive the best possible support to balance their work and home lives as part of our Plan to Make Work Pay.”

McKenna is a patron of LGBT+ Labour – a socialist society formally affiliated with the Labour Party.

McKenna is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for choice at the end of life (chair), male suicide and mental health, health and sustainable resources.

McKenna delivered his maiden speech on 12 September 2024.

In it, he said: “In passing, I must mention Lord Darzi’s report, which the health secretary presented to the House today – not because of the content of the report, but because in 2015 I was honoured to become a Darzi fellow.

“Lord Darzi set up his fellowship programme to bring clinicians like me, a nurse, into clinical leadership, to ensure that the NHS and the health system are led by clinicians. I am not sure that the plan was to get us all into the Houses of Parliament, but I am the first Darzi fellow here and I think there will be quite a few more.”

He added: “My job is not only to argue for our place in the rebuilding of Britain, but to ensure that my constituents see real social, economic, health and wellbeing benefits from the opportunities.”

McKenna stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for the Bexley and Bromley constituency in the 2024 London Assembly election.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: McKenna was one of 117 Labour MPs who nominated Lucy Powell for the party’s deputy leadership in September 2025. The election followed the resignation of Angela Rayner, who stepped down as deputy prime minister and deputy party leader after an investigation into her tax affairs. It marked the first time since 2007 that Labour had held a deputy leadership contest while in government.

Powell, the former leader of the House of Commons, was seen as a candidate representing the party’s “soft left”; she was supported by leading soft left figures including Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham. She secured 117 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), above the 80 required, and went on to win the election – defeating Bridget Phillipson with 54.3% of the vote.

Factional identity and party tradition

Living Standards Coalition: McKenna is a member of the Living Standards Coalition. Established in July 2025, the group’s stated aim was to develop and promote policy ideas that directly reduce everyday costs for households, particularly in areas such as food, energy, housing and childcare. In an open letter published upon its founding, addressed to Keir Starmer, the MPs wrote: “Our constituents will ask one question at the next election: did this Labour government make me better off?”

They added: “To raise living standards, we support government interventions that will help to increase incomes and lower costs.”

SERA: McKenna has been listed as a member of the Socialist Environment and Resources Association (SERA) – a socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. Founded in 1973, SERA is the party’s official environmental campaign group. The organisation campaigns on a wide range of issues, including renewable energy, biodiversity, air quality and the transition to a green economy. SERA describes its member MPs as “champions for the environment”.

Brexit and Europe

Fair elections APPG: McKenna is listed as a supporter of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for fair elections – a cross-party group of MPs and peers that campaigns for electoral reform. The group’s stated aims include replacing the first past the post (FPTP) voting system with a form of proportional representation, eliminating “dark money” and “undemocratic influence” from politics, and countering disinformation.

Electoral reform

Electoral reform amendment: In May 2026, McKenna was one of over 70 Labour MPs who signed an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill, calling on the government to establish a “national commission on electoral reform”. Tabled by Alex Sobel as chair of the fair elections APPG, the amendment aimed to force a rethink of the first past the post voting system.

At the time, Sobel described FPTP as “one of the biggest examples of a broken status quo in UK politics.” He invited colleagues to join this “common sense call to take a fresh look at how parliament is elected in modern Britain.”

Welfare

Welfare ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): McKenna was one of the over 120 Labour MPs to sign the reasoned amendment to the government’s flagship welfare bill which aimed to reject the proposed legislation.

The amendment, in the name of senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, objected to the fact that the bill had not been subject to a “formal consultation with disabled people” and that “250,000 people will be pushed into poverty” as a result of it, according to a government impact assessment.

The motion also called on the government to wait for the publication of the review into the Personal Independence Payment (Pip), helmed by minister Sir Stephen Timms, and the independent review, conducted by Sir Charlie Mayfield, into how the employment of disabled people could be boosted.

Welfare vote (July 2025): McKenna voted in favour of the government’s flagship welfare bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Assisted dying

McKenna voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): McKenna voted in favour of a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Before Politics

Born in Erith, London, in 1974, McKenna grew up in Welling, London Borough of Bexley. He attended St Stephen’s Catholic Primary School and Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School.

McKenna initially studied microbiology at the University of Warwick.

McKenna has said he “chose to train as a nurse after seeing the nursing care many of my friends received during the AIDS crisis.”

McKenna qualified as a registered nurse in the 1990s at the Nightingale Institute, King’s College London. He later moved into health strategy roles within NHS England.

In 2015, he undertook a Darzi Fellowship in clinical leadership.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, he returned to clinical practice, working as a matron at the NHS Nightingale Hospital London.

Personal Life

McKenna lives in Sittingbourne with his husband.

In 2024, PinkNews listed McKenna among a number of out LGBTQ+ parliamentarians.

In February 2025, during a debate relating to HIV Testing Week, McKenna revealed he was living with HIV.

He stated: “So I’ve lived for a long time as an HIV positive man. I’ve lived a long time in my life, starting off with friends taking tablets that did have quite severe side effects, some side effects that actually were very unpleasant and actually led to them still suffering from HIV and AIDS.

“But at the same time now, it’s whittled down to one tablet a day. And as I get into my fifties, it sits alongside my statins and my arthritis medication, all the other medications that we all have at a certain point in our lives.”

McKenna added: “So a very strong message today is honestly everyone just get tested. Everyone do it, it is absolutely fine. It’s just a little scratch on the finger. And there should be no stigma.

“You won’t pass this disease on when you’re treated, you won’t actually suffer. And honestly, it’s boring and mundane.”

Trivia

McKenna is a self-professed “Lego geek”.