Keith Ernest Darvill (born 28 May 1948) is a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. He is a councillor in the

London Borough of Havering The London Borough of Havering () in East London, England, forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 259,552 inhabitants; the principal town is Romford, while other communities are Hornchurch, Upminster, Collier Row and Rainham. The ...

. Darvill started his working life in the Port of London Authority as a dock messenger and was active in the Transport and General Workers Union. He was educated Norlington School in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, in East London and at the

Polytechnic of Central London , mottoeng = The Lord is our Strength , type = Public , established = 1838: Royal Polytechnic Institution 1891: Polytechnic-Regent Street 1970: Polytechnic of Central London 1992: University of Westminster , endowment = £5.1 million ...

school of Law after which he worked as a

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

. Darvill was elected as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Upminster at the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, taking it from the Conservatives, and was one of the few Labour MPs to lose their seat at the

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

to the Conservatives, in the person of

Angela Watkinson Dame Angela Eileen Watkinson, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, DBE (''née'' Ellicott; born 18 November 1941) is a British politician. She was Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), M ...

. Darvill stood once again in Upminster, Labour's sixth target, at the

May 2005 general election May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May ...

, but failed to regain the seat. Darvill elected to

Havering Council The London Borough of Havering () in East London, England, forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 259,552 inhabitants; the principal town is Romford, while other communities are Hornchurch, Upminster, Collier Row and Rainham. The ...

following his defeat in 2002. He also stood for the

London Assembly The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject ...

and was very narrowly re-elected for his Heaton ward in Havering in the 2006 local elections when Labour was almost wiped out in the borough. Following the 2010 local elections Labour increased its council group to 5 and Darvill was elected Labour Group leader on the Council. As a result of the 2022 Local Elections Darvill retained his role as leader of the Labour group and was appointed cabinet member for Climate Change as part of a coalition deal he helped to negotiate between the Labour Party and Havering Residents Association He lives in Upminster with his wife Julia, he has three children and seven grandchildren.

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* 1948 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Councillors in the London Borough of Havering UK MPs 1997–2001 Alumni of the University of Westminster {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub