Manchester born and raised Gordon Marsden was awarded an Open University Honorary Degree for his significant contribution to adult learning, putting his beliefs into practice throughout his varied career as a teacher, politician and campaigner.
Born in Manchester and raised in Stockport, he was the first in his family to go to university, gaining a First Class degree in history at New College Oxford. He did postgraduate work at the University of London and was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard. He taught history at the Open University for nearly twenty years, helped to launch English Heritage and was their public affairs adviser before moving on to spend twelve years as editor of History Today.
In Parliament he was co-chair of the All-Party Arts and Heritage Group and delivered three Speaker’s Lectures, on Nye Bevan, Clement Attlee and Denis Healey. Gordon remains a Trustee of the History of Parliament, which he chaired from 2016 to 2020.
In 1997, Gordon became the first ever Labour MP for Blackpool South. In Parliament he acted as Parliamentary Private Secretary to three Secretaries of State and served on select committees scrutinising the business and education departments.
His experiences as a Blackpool MP led to him bringing Parliamentarians from other coastal and seaside towns together to lobby Government for their social and economic regeneration. He also chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality and co-founded an All-Party Parliamentary Group for Veterans, focussing on their skills and welfare. On the Labour front bench for nine years, he was appointed shadow minister for skills and regional growth, then transport, and finally a combined portfolio covering higher and further education and skills.
As befits a former Open University lecturer, Gordon is perhaps best known for his commitment to lifelong education and skills. As a Fabian, and chair of the Society in 2000, he is passionate about evidence driven policy. A former chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Employment and Skills, as shadow minister he devised and carried through the Lifelong Learning Commission, whose ground breaking 2019 report to the Labour Party recommended a statutory right to learn for everyone, regardless of age or background throughout life, thus setting out to create an inclusive system of adult learning across higher, further and community education, empowering people to gain new skills, qualifications and life chances.
Since leaving Parliament in 2019, Gordon continues as an active campaigner for education and lifelong learning. He is a trustee of Villiers Park, a charity helping disadvantaged young people gain new skills. He is an ambassador for the Foundation for Education Development, aiming to improve education across all sectors. He is also a co-founder of the Right to Learn campaign, launched in 2020, which argues that access to education through lifelong learning should be a fundamental right for both social and economic wellbeing, as well as the fulfilment of multigenerational hopes.
Gordon said: “There’s was a poignancy for me standing in the Bridgewater Hall. Next Monday will be my birthday – I was born in St Mary’s Hospital, just a mile down the road. Both my parents and grandparents were Mancunians.
“I’m absolutely thrilled and humbled to be honoured in this way by a truly inspirational institution as the Open University.”
