Roger Gough was the Leader of Kent County Council from 2019 until 2025, leading England’s largest shire authority through the pandemic, Brexit transition, large-scale arrivals of unaccompanied asylum seeking children and intense financial and service pressures. In twenty years as a Kent County Councillor, he led for the Council in a variety of policy areas, including education, children’s services, economic development and partnership with the NHS. He has held a number of other roles in and connected to local government, including chairing the South East Strategic Partnership for Migration (2017-25), leading on children’s services for the County Councils Network and serving as the Vice-Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People’s Board and its Asylum, Refugee and Migration Task Force.
A former Research Director at Policy Exchange and Director of the local government think tank Localis, he also served as editor and rapporteur for the Conservative Party’s Democracy Task Force (2006-08), chaired by Ken Clarke and advising the then Shadow Cabinet on constitutional issues. His previous career was as an international investment analyst, specialising in the banking sector, including three years living and working in Japan. He is the author of two books (a biography of the Hungarian political leader János Kádár and a co-authored book on Britain’s role in extraordinary rendition) and many policy papers and articles on political history, local government, devolution and the constitution.
