Felicia Nicolette C. Gavron (born November 1941) is a British

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who served as

Deputy Mayor of London A Deputy Mayor is a member of the London Mayoral cabinet, in the executive arm of the Greater London Authority. They serve as political advisors with responsibilities and powers corresponding to portfolios delegated by the Mayor. One of them mu ...

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...

from 2000 to 2003 and 2004 to 2008. She was a member of 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 ...

from 2000 to 2021 and was the former

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 ...

candidate for the 2004

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

Biography

Gavron was born in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

. She is the daughter of a

German Jew The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

who had fled Nazi Germany in 1936 as pressure on the Jewish community was mounting. In March 2008 she claimed that her mother was chosen to dance before Hitler in the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympics, until the authorities discovered that she was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. She studied at Worcester Girls' Grammar School, followed by the study of the history of art at the

Courtauld Institute The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

in London. She then gained a job as a lecturer at the

Camberwell School of Art Camberwell College of Arts is a public tertiary art school in Camberwell, in London, England. It is one of the six constituent colleges of the University of the Arts London. It offers further and higher education programmes, including postgradu ...

in South London.

Political career

Gavron first became interested in politics in the 1970s when she campaigned against the widening of the

Archway Road The A1 in London is the southern part of the A1 road. It starts at Aldersgate in the City of London, passing through the capital to Borehamwood on the northern fringe of Greater London, before continuing to Edinburgh. The road travels throug ...

in London. In an interview with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' she said, "It was in the days when everyone thought road widening was the answer, but the penny dropped for me that it was part of the problem." In 1986, following the abolition of the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

, she was elected as a Labour councillor for Archway ward in the

London Borough of Haringey The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation of t ...

. She was leader of the London Planning Advisory Committee from 1994 until it was absorbed into the

Greater London Authority The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the metonym "City Hall", is the devolved regional governance body of Greater London. It consists of two political branches: the executive Mayoralty (currently led by Sadiq Khan) and the ...

. She was elected London Assembly Member for Enfield and Haringey in the

2000 London Assembly election The first elections for members of the London Assembly were held on 4 May 2000, alongside the first mayoral election. The assembly elections used the mixed member proportional representation, a form of additional member system, with 14 direct ...

and was Deputy Mayor of London from May 2000 until June 2003, when the mayor,

, appointed

Jenny Jones Jenny Jones may refer to: People *Jenny Jones (presenter) (born 1946), United States television personality and host of ''The Jenny Jones Show'' *Jenny Jones, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (born 1949), British Green Party politician, member of the ...

, of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

, to succeed her. Although she was selected as Labour's mayoral candidate for the 2004 elections, she stepped aside when

was readmitted to the party. In the

2004 London Assembly election An election to the Assembly of London took place on 10 June 2004, along with the 2004 London mayoral election. The Assembly is elected by the Additional Member System. There are fourteen directly elected constituencies, nine of which were won ...

she was re-elected as a London-wide Labour Assembly Member on the party list. Shortly after the election, Livingstone once again appointed her to the position of deputy mayor. Gavron was supposed to take up a position as acting mayor during Livingstone's suspension for four weeks from 1 March 2006, but a High Court order froze the suspension, allowing Livingstone to remain in office. Gavron stood for the Barnet and Camden London Assembly seat in the 2008 GLA elections against the Conservative incumbent,

Brian Coleman Brian Coleman FRSA (born 25 June 1961) is a former Independent Conservative politician and a former councillor in the London Borough of Barnet. He was a Conservative Party member of the London Assembly for Barnet and Camden between 2000 and ...

. Although she was unsuccessful in this contest she increased the Labour share of the vote in the constituency and was re-elected to the Assembly on the London-wide list vote. Gavron ceased to be Deputy Mayor on 4 May 2008 following

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

's victory in the 2008 London mayoral election. She subsequently served as chair of the London Assembly's Housing and Planning Committee, and as a Deputy Chair of the Planning Committee. She also served as the London Assembly Labour Group's lead spokesperson on planning matters. Gavron is a former member of the Safer London Committee and the

Metropolitan Police Authority The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) (2000–2012) was the local police authority responsible for scrutinising and supporting the work of the Metropolitan Police Service, the police force for Greater London (excluding the City of London Police ...

. She also served on the Mayor's Advisory Cabinet, holding the portfolio for spatial development and strategic planning. In this capacity she was the driving force behind much of the Mayor's environment and planning policy, overseeing the London Plan. In January 2019, Gavron announced her intention to stand down at the 2020 London Assembly election.

Environmental policy

Gavron is internationally recognised for her environmental expertise. She was a key figure in the establishment of the London Climate Change Agency and the C40 – a worldwide climate change action group made up of the world's largest cities. In 2006, ''

Business Week Magazine ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'' cited her, along with Ken Livingstone, as one of the twenty most important people in the world in the battle against greenhouse gas emissions. The magazine said that " he aimsto turn London into a model of a sustainable future for all the world's great cities." In the same year she called for a new Clean Air Act – a Low Carbon Act to fight climate change. She envisioned

low carbon A low-carbon economy (LCE) or decarbonised economy is an economy based on energy sources that produce low levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. GHG emissions due to human activity are the dominant cause of observed climate change since the mi ...

zones being rolled out across the country in the same way that smokeless zones were in the 1950s. Gavron has criticised patio heaters, calling them "an indulgence too far". In an article for the ''Guardians ''Comment is Free'' site she asked, "Why not wear a jumper and enjoy fresh air, not a cocktail of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...

and goodness knows what else."

Personal life

In 1967 she married the publishing tycoon

Robert Gavron Robert Gavron, Baron Gavron (13 September 1930 – 7 February 2015) was a British printing millionaire, philanthropist and a Labour life peer. Early life and education Gavron was the eldest son of Nathan Gavron, a patent lawyer, and Leah G ...

(later Lord Gavron), a widower with two children. They had two daughters together, Jessica, now a lawyer, and

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a piou ...

, a film director. They divorced in 1987.

References

External links

*
Biography from the London Assembly
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gavron, Nicky 1941 births Living people Politicians from Worcester, England British Ashkenazi Jews English Jews Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art English people of German-Jewish descent Councillors in the London Borough of Haringey Labour Co-operative Members of the London Assembly

Nicky Gavron Felicia Nicolette C. Gavron (born November 1941) is a British politician who served as Deputy Mayor of London to Ken Livingstone from 2000 to 2003 and 2004 to 2008. She was a member of the London Assembly from 2000 to 2021 and was the former ...

Jewish British politicians Spouses of life peers Women councillors in England