Heidi Alexander (born 17 April 1975) is a British politician who served as Deputy Mayor of London for Transport from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she was

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 ...

(MP) for

Lewisham East Lewisham East is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since the by-election on 14 June 2018 by Janet Daby of the Labour Party. History Lewisham East was created for the 1918 general election. ...

from 2010 to 2018. Alexander served as

Shadow Secretary of State for Health The Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is an office within British politics held by a member of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition. The duty of the office holder is to scrutinise the actions of the government's Secretary of State f ...

from 2015 to 2016.

Early life and career

Alexander was born in

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

to Malcolm, an electrician, and Elaine Alexander (). She was educated at Churchfields Comprehensive School and New College Sixth Form. Alexander studied at

Grey College, Durham Grey College is a Durham University#Colleges, college of Durham University in England. Although it was originally planned for the college to be named Oliver Cromwell College, this proved too controversial and it was instead named after Charles Gre ...

, where she received a BA in geography and an MA in European Urban and Regional Change. Alexander had a 6-month placement in the office of

Cherie Blair Cherie, Lady Blair, (; born 23 September 1954), also known professionally as Cherie Booth, is an English barrister and writer. She is married to the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Tony Blair. Early life and education Booth ...

10 Downing Street 10 Downing Street in London, also known colloquially in the United Kingdom as Number 10, is the official residence and executive office of the first lord of the treasury, usually, by convention, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Along wi ...

in 1998. She worked as a Parliamentary researcher for Lewisham MP

Joan Ruddock Dame Joan Mary Ruddock, (née Anthony; born 28 December 1943) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham Deptford from 1987 to 2015. Ruddock was Minister of State for Energy at the Departmen ...

from 1999 to 2005, and as campaigns manager for the charity Clothes Aid from 2005 to 2006.

Political career

Local government

Alexander served as a Member of

Lewisham London Borough Council Lewisham London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lewisham in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council is unusual in that its executi ...

for Evelyn ward from 2004 to 2010. She was Deputy

Mayor of Lewisham The mayor of Lewisham is a directly elected mayor responsible for the executive function of Lewisham London Borough Council in London, England. Steve Bullock held the position from 2002 until May 2018, when he was succeeded by Damien Egan. Re ...

and Cabinet Member for Regeneration from 2006 to 2010. Alexander was selected as the Labour candidate for

in October 2009, and elected to Parliament at the 2010 general election.

House of Commons

Shortly after her election to Parliament, Alexander was appointed

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

to the Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs team. She was became an

Opposition Whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology ...

in 2012, and was promoted to Deputy Shadow

Minister for London The Minister for London is a United Kingdom Government ministerial post in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The officeholder is responsible for policy relating to London including informing Members of Parliament in the ...

and senior Opposition Whip in 2013. She served as a member of the

Communities and Local Government Committee The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee (formerly the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine ...

from 2010 to 2012 and

Health Committee Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organizat ...

from 2016 to 2017. Following

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

's election as Labour leader in September 2015, Alexander joined the shadow cabinet as

. She became the first shadow cabinet minister to resign in June 2016, calling for a new party leader after the EU referendum and dismissal of

Hilary Benn Hilary James Wedgwood Benn (born 26 November 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds Central since a by-election in 1999. He served in the Cabinet from 2003 to 2010, under both Tony Bla ...

. In an opinion piece for ''

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 ...

'', Alexander wrote 'I loved being the shadow health secretary. But I hated being part of the shadow cabinet...because it was entirely dysfunctional' and 'so inept, so unprofessional, so shoddy'.

Deputy Mayor of London

In May 2018, Alexander resigned her seat in Parliament to become Deputy Mayor of London for Transport under

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 ...

. She served as Deputy Chair of Transport for London in her role, and remained on the body's board until the opening of

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...

. During her time in the role, she was tasked with maintaining London transport during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and leading several rounds of government bailout negotiations. She notably worked to tackle delays to the opening of Crossrail and re-opening of

Hammersmith Bridge Hammersmith Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the River Thames in west London. It links the southern part of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the north side of the river, and Barnes in the London Borough ...

, and took-up cycling to promote the method of transport. Initially planning to step-down at the end of Khan's first term until the pandemic, she departed her role in 2022 to 'consider her next career move'. In June 2022, Alexander announced her intention to seek selection as the Labour candidate for

South Swindon South Swindon is a constituency in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Sir Robert Buckland, a Conservative, who previously served as Justice Secretary and Welsh Secretary ...

. She was selected in July 2022 as prospective parliamentary candidate for the next general election.

Political views

European Union Alexander opposed the triggering of

Article 50 Withdrawal from the European Union is the legal and political process whereby an EU member state ceases to be a member of the Union. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union ( TEU) states that "Any Member State may decide to withdraw from t ...

following the EU referendum, proposing a "reasoned amendment" in January 2017 to throw-out the article. She co-founded the Labour Campaign for the Single Market in 2017, and is a supporter of the pro-EU group

Open Britain Open Britain is a British pro-European Union campaign group set up in the aftermath of the 2016 European Union referendum. Background Following the referendum, the official remain group in the 2016 EU referendum, Britain Stronger in Europe, c ...

. Labour Party Alexander supported

Andy Burnham Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 2008 ...

in the

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and 2015 Labour leadership elections, and

Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...

in the 2016 Labour leadership election. She chaired

's campaign for the

2016 London mayoral election The 2016 London mayoral election was held on 5 May 2016 to elect the Mayor of London, on the same day as the London Assembly election. It was the fifth election to the position of mayor, which was created in 2000 after a referendum in Greate ...

References

External links

Heidi Alexander Profile
at labour.org.uk
Heidi Alexander Profile
at ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

''
Heidi Alexander
on ''

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

'' , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Heidi 1975 births Living people Alumni of Grey College, Durham Councillors in the London Borough of Lewisham Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Swindon UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 21st-century British women politicians 21st-century English women 21st-century English people Women councillors in England Shadow Secretaries of State for Health