Gideon, whilst known as Jo Booth, was elected in 2003 as a Conservative councillor on
Thanet District Council, representing Cliffsend and Pegwell ward until 2015. Later that year, she sought the nomination to be Conservative candidate for the 2016 Kent Police and Crime Commissioner election. She contested the
marginal seat of
Scunthorpe at the
2015 general election, but lost to the
Labour incumbent,
Nic Dakin. At the
2017 general election, she stood in another marginal seat,
Great Grimsby, and finished 2,565 votes behind Labour's sitting MP,
Melanie Onn. Gideon was elected to
Ashford Borough Council in
May 2019 as a borough councillor, where she was a cabinet member for Community Safety & Wellbeing. She stood down as councillor following her election to Parliament in
December 2019, when she narrowly gained
Stoke-on-Trent Central from Labour for the Conservatives, it being the third marginal seat she had stood for election in. On 9 February 2023, she announced she would be standing down at the
2024 general election. She was the second so-called
red wall MP to do so, after
Dehenna Davison in
Bishop Auckland. == Personal life ==