Gordon Raymond Banks (born 14 June 1955) is a British Labour politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ochil and South Perthshire from 2005 to 2015.

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Quick Facts Shadow Minister for Scotland, Leader ...

Gordon Banks
Banks in 2008
Shadow Minister for Scotland
In office 18 March 2013 – 30 March 2015
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Willie Bain
Succeeded by	Paul Sweeney (2017)
Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills
In office 8 October 2010 – 23 May 2011
Leader	Ed Miliband
Succeeded by	Chuka Umunna
Member of Parliament for Ochil and South Perthshire
In office 5 May 2005 – 30 March 2015
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh
Personal details
Born	(1955-06-14) 14 June 1955 (age 68) Acomb, Northumberland, England
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	University of Stirling

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Banks was born in Acomb, Northumberland and educated at the Lornshill Academy in Alloa and then the Glasgow College of Building. He later obtained an honours degree in History and Politics from the University of Stirling.^{[citation needed]}

He has worked in the construction industry for 31 years, and formed his own building supplies business in 1986.^{[citation needed]}

Banks was elected in the new constituency of Ochil and South Perthshire at the 2005 general election, defeating both Annabelle Ewing and Liz Smith.^[1]

Shortly after his election, Banks became a member of the Regulatory Reform Committee, the Unopposed Bills (Panel) Committee, the Scottish Affairs Committee and the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee. In May 2006, he became a PPS to James Purnell, and subsequently left the Scottish and Northern Ireland committees.^{[citation needed]}

In October 2010, he was appointed as one of the Shadow Ministers of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. He resigned from this role in April 2011 to concentrate on his constituency duties, and was succeeded by Chuka Ummuma.^[2] He returned to the opposition front bench in 2013 as Shadow Minister for Scotland.

During his period as an MP he also successfully ran by-election campaigns for Westminster (1) and Holyrood(2). He also ran the successful 2012 Council elections for the City of Glasgow.

Later he also played a leading role in running Scottish Labour's campaign in the 2014 independence referendum.

In many of these campaigns he worked alongside James Kelly MSP.

He was defeated by Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh of the Scottish National Party at the 2015 general election.^[3]

Banks is married with two children. He is a member of the Coeliac Society.

• List of people diagnosed with coeliac disease