Valerie Shawcross is a British politician who served as Deputy Mayor of London for Transport from 2016 to 2018. A member of the

Labour Co-operative Labour and Co-operative Party (often abbreviated Labour Co-op; cy, Llafur a'r Blaid Gydweithredol) is a description used by candidates in United Kingdom elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party. Candidat ...

parties, she was

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 ...

for Lambeth and Southwark from 2000 to 2016. Shawcross was a Member of

Croydon London Borough Council Croydon London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Croydon in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Croydon is divided into 28 wards, electing 70 cou ...

from 1994 to 2000, and served as Leader of the Council from 1997 to 2000. She unsuccessfully stood, as the Labour candidate, to become

Mayor of Croydon The Mayor of Croydon is a directly elected mayor responsible for the executive function of Croydon London Borough Council. The current mayor is Jason Perry of the Conservative Party, elected in May 2022, and the first holder of the post. ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Early life and education

Born on Langley Council Estate, Middleton, Shawcross attended local state schools before gaining a 2:1 degree in Political Theory and Institutions from the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

. She joined the Labour Party aged 19. Elected as the Deputy President of the Guild of Undergraduates in 1980, she moved to London in 1981 to take up a post at the UK Council for Students Affairs - UKCOSA (Charity). She gained an MA in Human Rights and Education at the London Institute in 1986.

Political career

Croydon Council

She served as a councillor for

New Addington New Addington is a town in South London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon. It is located 5 miles south east of Croydon, south of Addington Village and north of Biggin Hill. History Until the 1930s, the area now known as New Addingt ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

from 1994 to 2000, serving as chair of education and later as leader of

from 1997 to 2000.

London Assembly and Deputy Mayoralty

She was first elected to 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 ...

in 2000, and retained her seat in subsequent elections. In 2000, the mayor of London

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 ...

appointed her as the chair of the

London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority The London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) was a functional body of the Greater London Authority (GLA), established under the Greater London Authority Act 1999. Its principal purpose was to run the London Fire Brigade. The 17 members ...

(LFEPA). She accepted the appointment on the condition that she would "consider herself bound by Labour's policies and not the mayor's", with Livingstone at the time being an

independent politician An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...

. In his memoir, Livingstone wrote that she "spent the next eight years transforming the London Fire Brigade, leading to a dramatic reduction in loss of life from fires, cutting waste and, later, organising emergency response procedures after 9/11". At the same time, she served as the Labour group's spokesperson for transport and as chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee. She also served on the Assembly Budget Scrutiny Committee, and chaired the audit committee immediately following her election. On 7 December 2010, it was announced that Shawcross would be Livingstone's running-mate in the

2012 London mayoral election The 2012 London mayoral election was an election held on Thursday 3 May 2012, to elect the Mayor of London. It was held on the same day as the London Assembly election, and used a supplementary vote system. The election was won by the incumbe ...

. Shawcross unsuccessfully sought selection as the Labour candidate for the 2012 Croydon North by-election, with Steve Reed becoming the candidate and winning the seat. In 2015, she announced that she would not seek re-election to the London Assembly at the 2016 elections. In May 2016,

Sadiq Khan Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...

appointed her as deputy mayor of London for transport and deputy chair of Transport for London. In May 2018, she announced her retirement.

Retirement and Croydon Mayoralty

Following her retirement from full-time public life in 2018, she worked as chair of the Heathrow Area Transport Forum, and assumed roles in the Thames Festival Trust and Crystal Palace Park Trust. In October 2021, Shawcross announced her intention to stand to be the first directly elected

. She was selected as Croydon Labour's 2022 mayoral candidate in December 2021. Shawcross was narrowly defeated by Conservative Jason Perry in the May 2022 Croydon Mayoral election, who won with a majority of less than 600 votes in the second round. Her campaign was damaged by dissatisfaction with the Labour-held Council, which had led the borough into bankruptcy.

Honours and awards

Shawcross was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE) in 2002 for her services to local government. She was made an Honorary Alderwoman of the London Borough of Croydon in 2019, and is a Freewoman of the City of London. She has been recognised for her work in Transport in London by the business group ‘London First’, the ‘London Cycling Campaign', and the disability campaign group ‘Transport for All’.

Personal life

Shawcross is married to Michael Anteney and has lived in the London Borough of Croydon since 1985.

Footnotes

External links

Labour in Southwark
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shawcross, Valerie Living people Councillors in the London Borough of Croydon Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Politics of the London Borough of Southwark People from Middleton, Greater Manchester Year of birth missing (living people) Labour Members of the London Assembly Women councillors in England