Anne Hallowell Sofer (born 19 April 1937) is a former British politician. The daughter of

Geoffrey Crowther Geoffrey Crowther, Baron Crowther Kt. (13 May 1907 – 5 February 1972) was a British economist, journalist, educationalist and businessman. He was editor of ''The Economist'' from 1938 to 1956.His major works include 'Economics for Democrats'(1 ...

, Sofer was educated at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and then at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

. In 1972, she became the secretary of the National Association of Governors and Managers. She stood for the Labour Party in St Pancras North at the

1977 Greater London Council election Elections to 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 muc ...

, winning the seat. In 1981, she resigned from the Labour Party and joined the new

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SDP). She resigned from the council, then stood in a by-election under her new party label, retaining the seat. In 1982, Sofer was elected to the executive of the SDP. She stood in Hampstead and Highgate at the

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

and 1987 UK general elections, taking third place on each occasion. The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986, following which Sofer stood in Hampstead and Highgate at the

1986 Inner London Education Authority election The Inner London Education Authority election, 1986 was held on 8 May in order to elect 58 members to the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). Constituents of the 29 seats of inner London (at the time) elected two members each. This was th ...

, but was defeated. She later supported the merger of the SDP into the new Liberal Democrats. Sofer also served as a director of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

from 1981 to 1983. In 1983, she became a columnist with ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''. From 1989 until 1997, she served as the chief education officer of the

London Borough of Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London boroughs, London borough covering much of the traditional East End of London, East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropol ...

. Following her retirement, she founded the London Accord, which aimed to get businesses involved in the most disadvantaged schools, and also served on the Hackney Improvement Team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sofer, Anne 1937 births Living people Members of the Greater London Council Labour Party (UK) councillors Social Democratic Party (UK) parliamentary candidates