Heidi Alexander

Heidi Alexander (born 17 April 1975) is a British Labour Party politician who is the Deputy Mayor of London for Transport under Sadiq Khan and Deputy Chair of Transport for London. She served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham East from the 2010 general election, resigning in May 2018 to join the mayoral team. She was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health on 13 September 2015, but resigned from the shadow cabinet on 26 June 2016.

Early life

The daughter of Malcolm, an electrician, and his wife Elaine (), Heidi Alexander was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, and attended the town's Churchfields Comprehensive School. She is a graduate of Durham University (Grey College, Durham) from where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography and a Masters degree in European Urban and Regional Change.

She worked as a researcher for MP Joan Ruddock for six years from 1999. She also worked as the Campaigns Manager for Clothes Aid.

Political career
Heidi Alexander was elected to Lewisham London Borough Council as a councillor for the Evelyn ward in 2004, and served as Deputy Mayor of Lewisham and Cabinet Member for regeneration from 2006. She was selected as the Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Lewisham East in October 2009 and was elected to Parliament in 2010.

She was a member of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee and supported Andy Burnham for the Labour leadership in 2010. Early in her parliamentary career she served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Mary Creagh MP and from 2012 served as an Opposition Whip as well as (from December 2013) a Shadow Minister for London. She was the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Choice at the End of Life.

Alexander was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health on 13 September 2015, the day after Jeremy Corbyn was elected as Labour leader. On 26 June 2016, Alexander became the first of many Shadow Cabinet ministers to resign and call for a new party leader following the EU referendum result and sacking of Hilary Benn. "I loved being the shadow health secretary. But I hated being part of the shadow cabinet", Alexander wrote in The Guardian in August 2016, "because it was entirely dysfunctional" and "so inept, so unprofessional, so shoddy. There was no effort to build a team". She supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election.

In 2016 Alexander was Sadiq Khan's campaign chair for the London mayoral election.

In January 2017, Alexander proposed a "reasoned amendment" to stop the trigger of Article 50. Alexander co-chairs with Alison McGovern the Labour Campaign for the Single Market, and is a leading supporter of Open Britain.

On 8 May 2018, Alexander announced she was to resign her seat to become Sadiq Khan's deputy mayor for transport in London. Alexander said, "London is a fantastic city. I know Sadiq wants its transport system to be the envy of the world and I am looking forward to playing my part in making that happen."

References

External links

Heidi Alexander Profile at labour.org.uk 

Heidi Alexander Profile at New Statesman 
Heidi Alexander on Twitter

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Category:1975 births
Category:Living people
Category:Alumni of Grey College, Durham
Category:Councillors in the London Borough of Lewisham
Category:Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Category:People from Swindon
Category:UK MPs 2010–2015
Category:UK MPs 2015–2017
Category:UK MPs 2017–2019
Category:21st-century British women politicians