Sir Roger Gale is the Conservative MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich, having first been elected for this seat at the 4 July 2024 general election. He has served as an MP continuously since 1983, previously representing the North Thanet constituency.  

A veteran MP, Sir Roger currently serves on the panel of chairs in the House of Commons. Born in August 1943, Gale is the oldest sitting MP – making him the unofficial “grandfather of the House”.

In the 2024 general election, Sir Roger won 17,243 votes, representing 35.3% of the vote. The Labour candidate, Helen Whitehead, received 14,744 votes (30.2%), while the Reform UK candidate, Amelia Randall, secured 10,602 votes (21.7%). Sir Roger was duly elected with a majority of 2,499 votes.  

The Herne Bay and Sandwich constituency was newly created for the 2024 election, drawing territory mainly from the former North Thanet seat in Kent. It includes coastal towns such as Herne Bay, Birchington, Westgate-on-Sea, and Sandwich. The area is considered safe Conservative territory.  

Gale was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for public and political services.

Political Career

Gale has sat on the panel of chairs since 1997 – making him the longest-serving member. The panel of chairs is made up of MPs chosen by the House of Commons speaker, typically at the beginning of every parliament, to chair public bill committees and other commons general committees. In this capacity, Sir Roger also chairs debates in Westminster Hall and may also act as temporary chair during a committee of the whole House.

Since his appointment to the panel, Gale has chaired more than 100 pieces of legislation through their committee stages.

In December 2022, Gale was appointed as temporary deputy speaker of the House of Commons in order to cover for the illness of a colleague, Eleanor Laing. He held this role until parliament’s dissolution for the 2024 general election.

Gale returned as temporary deputy speaker in June 2025. In a statement, Gale said he took on the role to “relieve pressures on the system”.

Gale presided over the commons third reading debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, which he described as “one of the most far-reaching considerations that the House, even those of us who have been here for a very long time, can probably remember.”

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During his time as deputy speaker, Gale is prohibited by convention from voting or engaging in other partisan activities.

Gale was a prominent and regular critic of Boris Johnson’s premiership. In December 2021, they were the first Conservative MP to publicly confirm they had submitted a no-confidence letter in Johnson’s leadership to Sir Graham Brady, then the chair of the 1922 committee. Gale said he had done so in the wake of former Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings’ lockdown-busting trip to Barnard Castle in May 2020. The actions of Cummings, which included a trip from London to County Durham and a subsequent drive to Barnard Castle, were seen by many as a breach of the government’s own “stay at home” guidance.

Gale told the BBC that he submitted his “letter to Sir Graham Brady after the Barnard Castle incident, because that gave a message to me that this was not the kind of leadership that I believe the Conservative Party needed”.

Gale also criticised Cummings’ trip at the time. In a statement, issued on 24 May 2020, Gale wrote that “as a father and as a grandfather I fully appreciate Mr Cummings’ desire to protect his child”. But he criticised him for breaking the rules, arguing that his position “is no longer tenable”.

Following the 2021 North Shropshire by-election, which saw the Liberal Democrats overturn a Conservative majority of almost 23,000, Gale said the prime minister was on “last orders”.

He told BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme: “One more strike and he’s out.”

In January 2022, Gale declared Johnson a “dead man walking” after the prime minister admitted to attending a “BYOB” (bring your own booze) party during the first Covid-19 lockdown.

Sir Roger said that it was already clear Johnson had misled parliament – but reasoned that he would not resign. The veteran parliamentarian said it would fall to the executive of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbench MPs – the so-called “men in grey suits” – to decide his fate.

He told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme: “We now know that the prime minister spent 25 minutes at what was quite clearly a party…

“After prime minister’s question time today, it sounds to me, I am afraid, very much as though politically the prime minister is a dead man walking.”

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In April 2022, however, Gale stated that he had changed his mind and iterated his support for Johnson due to geopolitical developments.

He told LBC Radio: “The game has changed. We are now in the middle of the most serious crisis that the world’s faced since 1945.

“I was concerned that we should not seek to destabilize the government of the United Kingdom, not just the prime minister… at a time when the coalition requires our support in the war against Putin’s criminality.”

Sir Roger’s lengthy parliamentary career has been spent predominantly on the backbenches. He served as a member of the UK delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 1987 to 1989, and again from 2010 to 2015. In the latter term, Gale chaired the UK delegation. He was vice-chairman of the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2003, during Sir Iain Duncan Smith’s tenure as Tory leader.

He served as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to successive ministers of state in the Ministry of Defence between 1992 and 1995.

In July 2021, Gale was one of five Conservative MPs found to have breached the code of conduct by trying to influence a judge in the trial of former MP Charlie Elphicke. The group of MPs had written a letter, on headed House of Commons notepaper, to senior presiding judge Lady Justice Thirlwall and Queen’s Bench Division president Dame Victoria Sharp, raising concerns about the potential release of character references they provided for Elphicke.

Sir Roger, alongside Natalie Elphicke (Charlie’s former wife) and Theresa Villiers, were recommended for a one-day suspension.

The commons standards committee said: “The letters signed and sent by the members in this case were an attempt improperly to influence judicial proceedings.

“Such egregious behaviour is corrosive to the rule of law and, if allowed to continue unchecked, could undermine public trust in the independence of judges.”

The committee report added: “We recommend that Sir Roger be suspended from the service of the House for one sitting day. Sir Roger should also apologise to the House by means of a letter to the committee, and to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales by letter copied to the committee. The terms of both apologies should be agreed in advance by Mr Speaker and the chair of the committee.”

In September 2012, Gale was named by ConservativeHome as one of 24 backbench Tory MPs who had yet to rebel against the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

Sir Roger delivered his maiden speech on 30 June 1983. In it, he said: “The House has often – sometimes with justification – accused the media of bias. From the opposition benches [Labour MPs] the cry is usually against the press; from the government benches [Conservative MPs] it is traditionally the BBC and ITV which bear the brunt of criticism.

“We have looked for reds behind the microphones and for jackboots in Printing House square.”

He added: “My experience as a broadcaster has led me to believe that output is, more often than not, directly related to input. We should be looking not at the messenger but at the message itself.

“We shall not get the balance right by tampering with the electoral system or by censorship. The recent election has shown that if the message is good it will be well received; if not, it will be rightly rejected.”

Sir Roger previously stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for the 1982 Birmingham Northfield by-election, finishing second to Labour’s John Spellar on 15,615 votes (35.6%%). Spellar prevailed with a razor-thin 289-vote majority.

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Tory leadership 2022 (I): Gale supported Penny Mordaunt’s candidacy in the Conservative Party’s July-September 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Boris Johnson, following the mass exodus of more than 60 frontbenchers.

Mordaunt, the international trade minister, was described as a “socially liberal Brexiteer”. She was narrowly overtaken by Liz Truss in the final round. Mordaunt was thereby eliminated in the fifth parliamentary ballot on 20 July after receiving 105 votes.

Tory leadership 2022 (II): Gale also supported Mordaunt’s candidacy in the Conservative Party’s October 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Truss after just 45 days in office, following the financial and political tailspin triggered by her “mini-budget”.

Unlike the summer contest, this election featured an expedited process requiring each candidate to secure at least 100 nominations from MPs to proceed. Mordaunt withdrew from the contest on 24 October, shortly before the deadline, after being unable to secure the required number of nominations.

Speaking in October 2022, Gale described Mordaunt as “a unifier, a team leader and a team player”.

He added that if Mordaunt did not pass the requisite threshold of 100 Conservative MPs, an eventuality which came to pass, he would “cheerfully” support any other candidate who emerged as leader – apart from Boris Johnson.

Gale told the BBC: “My dream ticket would be Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak in whichever order, together hopefully, with Jeremy Hunt as the chancellor who is doing an essential, vital and very good job.”

Sir Roger said he would resign the whip if Boris Johnson were to become the next leader of the Conservative Party. He argued that Johnson’s “casual relationship with the truth” made him “unfit” for the top job, or “any office”.

Gale’s leadership campaign endorsements generally reflect a more moderate or “one nation” Conservative outlook.

Tory leadership 2019: Gale supported Jeremy Hunt, the then-foreign secretary, for the party’s leadership in 2019. The election was triggered by the resignation of Theresa May following her inability to secure a Brexit deal acceptable to the Conservative Party.

Hunt, campaigning as a “unity candidate”, secured 77 votes from MPs in the final parliamentary round and thereby reached the final head-to-head ballot against Boris Johnson. In the subsequent vote by the party membership, Hunt finished as runner-up with 46,656 votes (33.6%) compared to Johnson’s 92,153 (66.4%).

Tory leadership 2016: Gale supported May for the party’s leadership in July 2016. The contest was triggered by the resignation of David Cameron following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.

May, the then-home secretary, secured a commanding lead in the parliamentary stages, receiving 165 votes in the first ballot and 199 in the second. Following the withdrawal of her final rival, Andrea Leadsom, on 11 July, May was declared leader unopposed and was appointed prime minister two days later.

Factional identity and party tradition

Conservative Environment Network: Gale is listed as a member of the Conservative Environment Network (CEN) advisory council. CEN is an independent forum for conservatives that supports conservation and decarbonisation. It calls for the environment to be given a higher profile at the heart of policy making, describing “biodiversity loss, climate change, and wasteful resource use are threats to our national security”, and promotes “market-based policies” to environmental challenges. Members of its parliamentary caucus, such as Gale, are thought to generally align with the group’s “green” message and environmentalism.

Animal welfare: Gale is a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF). The CAWF, co-founded animal welfare campaigner Lorraine Platt and Carrie Johnson, the wife of the former prime minister, calls for an end to live animal exports for fattening and slaughter, tougher sentencing for animal cruelty, and a ban on the import of fur and foie gras. It has close links with the Conservatives Against Fox Hunting campaign, also known as Blue Fox.

Brexit and Europe

Brexit referendum: Gale supported the Remain campaign in the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union (EU), and therefore disagreed with a majority of his constituents, 65.2% of whom voted to Leave.

Brexit Delivery Group: Gale was a member of the Brexit Delivery Group of Conservative MPs – a faction of Conservative MPs active during the parliamentary battles over the UK’s withdrawal from the EU between 2018 and 2019. Co-chaired by MPs Andrew Percy and Simon Hart, the group was formed as a pragmatic, pro-deal voice within the parliamentary party – seeking to act as a counterweight to the influence of the hardline European Research Group (ERG).

Alongside Percy, Gale was one of two Conservative MPs to vote against the government’s Internal Market Bill – a piece of post-Brexit legislation introduced to ensure that companies could continue to trade unhindered across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The bill, one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in the 2019-2024 parliament, contained clauses that would have given UK ministers the power to unilaterally override part of the Northern Ireland protocol as set out in the Brexit withdrawal agreement – an international treaty signed with the EU. The government itself admitted this would breach international law in a “specific and limited way”.

Gale told BBC Newsnight he had voted against the bill at second reading as a “matter of principle” to uphold international law.

He commented: “I think that this is damaging our international reputation for honest and straight-dealing at a time when we are about to embark on a series of trade negotiations. I took a view that you fight this tooth and nail at every step.”

Following a significant backlash from within the Conservative party and from the EU, these highly contentious clauses were removed before the bill was passed into law.

Assisted dying

In November 2024, Gale voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at second reading. He presided over the bill’s third reading debate (June 2025) as deputy speaker, meaning he did not vote on that occasion.

Gale voted against similar legislation in 2015, alongside a large majority of MPs. In a statement at the time, Gale said: “Terminal palliative care can and should be invested in and improved upon certainly. Whether at home or in the Hospices those nearing the end of their days, and their families, need enormous support and affection if we are to allow them to enjoy – and I use the word very deliberately – the”good death” that we all wish for ourselves.

“That, though, is a far cry from the ‘assisted dying’ route that is promoted within the [bill before the House]. I have the greatest possible sympathy and respect for those who are suffering from terminal illnesses and for their friends and families but, for reasons of both experience and faith that I hope I have explained, I shall not be voting in the ‘Aye’ lobby”.

Intervening on Labour MP and assisted dying opponent Rachael Maskell during the 2024 bill’s second reading debate, Gale said: “I agree with the honourable lady entirely: the way forward should be through better palliative care and not through assisted suicide.

“The bill does not address the needs of children. Would she recognise that we also need better palliative care for children as well as adults?”

Social values and conscience issues

Historically, Gale has been considered one of the staunchest supporters in the commons for the return of the death penalty. In 2008, the veteran MP rejected calls to ban pointed kitchen knives in order to reduce the number of stabbings. “Are we seriously suggesting that the fundamental implements of Western culinary art should be banned?”, he said.

“If so, then carpenters’ and plumbers’ weapons such as screwdrivers will have to be taken out of circulation. I would suggest the much more basic but practical response is capital punishment.”

In 1988, Gale tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill which proposed to allow for the jury in a murder case to “have the power, upon reaching a verdict of guilt of murder, to recommend … death in the manner authorised by law”. It was rejected by 218 votes to 341.

Speaking in a 1987 commons debate on the death penalty, Gale stated: “The increase in armed crime has taken place since the abolition of capital punishment – I suggest that if there has been an increase in the availability of weapons, it is because there has been a demand for weapons following abolition.”

He added: “It has been said that we risk executing an innocent man. We have always faced that possibility as we face the possibility of gaoling innocent men or women for life when they have been wrongfully convicted.

“What we do know is that there are 33 innocent victims who, since abolition [1965], have been murdered by murderers who have been released from prison. Those people might not be dead if we had had capital punishment on the statute book.”

In September 2004, Sir Roger was one of just six Conservative MPs to vote in favour of the Hunting Act – which outlawed the hunting of wild mammals, notably foxes, deer, and hares, with dogs in England and Wales.

In a 2021 article for ConservativeHome, Gale called for a “fresh crackdown on recalcitrant fox hunters”.

Gale is an honorary life member of the League Against Cruel Sports. He was the founding chairman of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for the fund for the replacement of animals in medical experiments.

Same-sex marriage (2013): In February 2013, Gale was one of the 139 Conservative MPs to vote against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill at its second reading. The landmark piece of legislation, which received its second reading by 400 votes to 175, legalised marriage for same-sex couples in England and Wales.

Speaking ahead of the vote, Gale voiced his strong opposition – calling the proposal “Orwellian almost”.

He stated: “Marriage is the union between a man and a woman, has been historically, remains so.

“It is Alice in Wonderland territory, Orwellian almost, for any government of any political persuasion to seek to come along and try to re-write the lexicon. It will not do”.

Gale also signed a cross-party open letter protesting that the government had no mandate to “redefine marriage”.

The letter stated: “We are sceptical that the proposed protections will prevent the erosion of liberties of religion and conscience. The proposed redefinition of marriage is unnecessary, given the legal rights established through civil partnerships.

“We understand some parliamentarians support freedom for same sex couples to marry, but we support a freedom from the state being able to redefine the meaning of marriage.”

Foreign policy and security

Palestinian recognition letter (June 2025): In June 2025, Gale was among a group of eight Conservative MPs who attempted to deliver a letter to 10 Downing Street calling on the government to recognise a Palestinian state.

The letter read: “We write to express our strong support should the government recognise a Palestinian state… This decision would be a substantive act of diplomacy and a statement of commitment to equality and peace.”

“Successive UK governments have affirmed support for two states living side by side in peace and security, but without meaningful action, that vision is rapidly slipping away. Settlement expansion, the ongoing disproportionate destruction in Gaza, and political deadlock, are making a viable two-state solution harder to achieve with each passing day.”

Sir Edward Leigh, one of the letter’s signatories, stated that they were “locked out of Downing Street”.

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Sanctioned (Russia): In April 2022, Gale was among the group of MPs placed on a sanctions list by the Russian government. The measure barred them from entering Russia and was presented by Moscow as a retaliatory response to the UK’s stance on the invasion of Ukraine.

Trident renewal (2016): Gale voted in favour of a government motion calling for the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent system in July 2016. The motion, which was passed by 472 votes to 117, committed the UK to constructing a new fleet of submarines to carry the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Syria airstrikes (2015): Gale voted in favour of a government motion to extend UK airstrikes against Isis from Iraq into Syria in December 2015. The motion, which was passed by 397 votes to 223 after a ten-hour debate in the House of Commons, authorised the RAF to conduct strikes against Isis targets in Syria.

Syria airstrikes (2013): Gale voted in favour of the government’s motion on the principle of military intervention in Syria in August 2013. The government motion was defeated by 285 votes to 272, a move which effectively ruled out UK participation in any US-led military strikes.

Iraq War authorisation vote (2003): In March 2003, Gale voted in favour of the government motion authorising military action against Iraq. The vote, one of the most contentious in recent parliamentary history, gave the prime minister, Tony Blair, the authority to join the US-led invasion.

Before Politics

Born Roger James Gale on 20 August 1943 in Poole, Dorset, he attended Southbourne Preparatory School and Thomas Hardye’s School in Dorchester. He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 1963.

Gale’s early career was in broadcasting. He worked as a pirate radio DJ for Radio Caroline North and Radio Scotland in the mid-1960s, before becoming a producer and director at BBC Radio and BBC Children’s Television, and later an editor at Thames Television

He went on to work as a programme director at Radio Scotland, before becoming a producer and director at BBC Radio and BBC Children’s Television, and later an editor at Thames Television.

Personal Life

Gale has been married three times and has three children: a daughter from his second marriage to Susan Linda Sampson, and two sons from his current marriage to Suzy Gale (née Marks), whom he married in 1980.

Sir Roger employs Suzy Gale as his office manager, paid from parliamentary expenses, according to the Register of Members’ Financial Interests (published June 2025).

Trivia

Gale is the oldest MP elected in the 2024 general election – making him the “grandfather of the House”.

Gale has worked as an international election observer in countries throughout Africa and Europe.