Charlie Gordon was born and raised in Partick, Glasgow; the youngest of a family of seven sons.

He left school aged 15 to become an apprentice joiner but entered college and university in his early 20s. He spent 19 years in the railway industry but has been full time in politics since 1993.

Charlie has served on Anniesland College Board and Glasgow Area Manpower Board.

He was elected to the Strathclyde Regional Council in a by-election in October 1987 for the Kingston/Hutchesontown division, and switched to representing Drumchapel/Blairdardie on the Council from 1990 until 1996, when Strathclyde Regional Council was abolished.

He was Strathclyde’s Vice Convener of Roads and Transport from 1990 to 1994 and Convener from 1994 to 1996. He was President of the P.O.L.I.S Network (Promoting Operational Links for Integrated Services) of European Cities and Regions applying information technology to transport, from 1992 - 1995. In 1995 he was elected to the new Glasgow City Council and was its first Roads Convener until 1996. He was Chair of the new Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority from 1996 to 1999 and was elected Deputy Leader of Glasgow City Council in 1997.

At Strathclyde Regional Council he had implemented the rebuilding of Buchanan bus station and the completion of the first stage of the M77 motorway.

In 1999, he became Leader of Glasgow City Council, an office which he held until 2005.

As Leader of Glasgow City Council he led an administration that oversaw the writing off of the city’s massive housing debt, paving the way for a stock transfer and massive new investment in social housing; built 40 new schools in the city; introduced free breakfasts in all primary schools, and led the regeneration of the Clyde waterfront, with an investment of some £2.3billion initially.

In April 2005, the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce presented an award to Councillor Charlie Gordon ‘…in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Glasgow’s business prosperity’


Charlie was elected MSP for Glasgow Cathcart in a by-election on 29th September 2005 and re-elected on May 3rd 2007.

After the May 2007 Elections, Charlie served brief spells as Chairman of the Scottish Parliament's Audit Committee and as Scottish Labour's Shadow  Transport Minister.  Charlie was elected Convenor of the Audit Committee in May 2007 until his appointment as Shadow Minister for Transport in September 2007.  He is also a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee and the Cross-Party Groups on Carers and Glasgow Crossrail.

On a personal level, Charlie Gordon has been politically active since 1969, when he marched against the US war in Vietnam. He has been a member of the Labour party for 29 years and a trade unionist for 38 years, starting off in the Woodworkers’ Union before becoming a branch and district official in the National Union of Railwaymen/RMT. He is a former President of Glasgow Trades Council and is currently a member of the GMB union.

Charlie has two adult sons from his first marriage and a baby son with his wife Emma, a teacher.