Val Shawcross


Valerie Shawcross is a Labour and Co-operative politician and former Deputy Mayor of London for Transport. She was a member of the London Assembly for Lambeth and Southwark between May 2000 and May 2016, when she voluntarily stood down. At the 2010 general election, Shawcross was the Labour Co-operative candidate for Bermondsey and Old Southwark.

Career

Shawcross joined the Labour Party when she was 19. She was first elected to the Assembly in 2000, and retained her seat in 2004 and 2008. In 2000, Ken Livingstone appointed her as Chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, a position she held until his defeat in 2008. She was the Labour London Assembly Spokesperson for Transport and Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, and also served on the Assembly Budget Scrutiny Committee.
She is a former Labour Party national women's officer, and was a councillor for New Addington in Croydon from 1994 to 2000, serving as Chair of Education, and later Leader, of Croydon London Borough Council. She was previously employed by the Inner London Education Authority, The World University Service, The UK Council for Overseas Students Affairs, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the National Federation of Women's Institutes.
Shawcross was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002 for her services to local government. She is married to Michael Anteney.
On 7 December 2010, it was announced that Shawcross would be the running mate of the Labour Party's official candidate for the 2012 London Mayoral election, Ken Livingstone.
Shawcross narrowly failed in an attempt to become the Labour candidate at the 2012 Croydon North by-election after a meeting was held on 3 November 2012 of the local Labour Association. Steve Reed was adopted as candidate.
In 2015, she announced that she would not seek re-election to the London Assembly at the 2016 elections.
In May 2016, Sadiq Khan appointed her Deputy Mayor of London for Transport and Deputy Chair of Transport for London. In May 2018, she announced her intention to retire.

Footnotes