Labour Party experience
LONDON ASSEMBLY
GLA Candidate 2016 – West Central
GLA Candidate 2012 – Havering & Redbridge – Lead the campaign which reduced a Tory majority from 40,000 to 4000
PARLIAMENTARY
- Secretary – Labour Friends of the Caribbean – Parliamentary Lobbying – including lobbying government re: APD (Air Passenger Duty) increases
- [P/T] Research/ Parliamentary Assistant to:
- Dawn Butler, former Brent South MP, Assistant Whip – Department for Children, Schools, and Families (DCSF) & Vice Chair Youth Affairs [May 2009 – May 2010]
- Ian Davidson MP, Glasgow South West [April 2008 – April 2009]
CONSTITUENCY – HACKNEY NORTH & STOKE NEWINGTON CLP
- CLP EMF/BAME Women’s Officer
- Trade Union Liaison Officer – TULO [2014-2018]; Chair – Clissold BLP [2011 – 2014]: 2013 London Labour Regional Board – Ethnic Minorities Officer Nominee: 2010 Council Selection Panel: Elected Youth Officer 2007 to 2010 – worked diligently with Hackney Youth Members, aged 16+, planning youth-focused campaign strategies and encouraging engagement in national & local democracy: Labour Group Observer for two years: Elected to sit on the LGC in 2008 and elected CLP Delegate for the National Conference 2007: Active on campaign trails for the 2010/2005 General & Local Elections, taken part in numerous by-elections as well as the Mayoral/GLA elections in May 2008 and the European Elections 2009: On-going local campaigning – Hackney Labour Against the Cuts.
- Coordinated a Youth Members’ Reception, held at the House of Commons – hosted by Hackney MPs Meg Hillier & Diane Abbott, the then Secretary of State Ed Miliband and MPs Sadiq Khan & David Lammy were among the high profile list of speakers: Organised ‘An audience with the Mayor’, a Labour Party youth recruitment event, held at The Hackney Empire where local young people were given the opportunity to talk exclusively to Mayor Jules Pipe about issues that affect their daily lives and to discuss what it means to be a member of the Labour Party.
Professional Portfolio
Currently a full-time English & Media Studies Teacher, I have also worked as a freelance writer/producer for The Guardian, the BBC and led a BAFTA winning team of creatives at Channel 4. Following a stint as Parliamentary Assistant to former MP and Cabinet Minister for Young Citizens – Dawn Butler – I moved on to coordinate the portfolio for Hackney’s Youth Parliament with a focus on local, national and international democracy. This included a USA Democracy trip to Washington I facilitated, where young Hackney delegates made a life changing journey to meet and film Barack Obama on the last leg of his 2008 Presidential Election Campaign.
I then moved on within Hackney’s Children & Young People’s Services to work as a Youth Justice Caseworker, liaising borough-wide across neighbourhood-based teams on Youth Justice Casework, Youth Support & Participation in Hackney’s integrated youth service.
Campaigning
Powerfully persuasive on the doorstep – 2012 GLA Campaign testament to that, experienced, motivated and hard-working – committed to helping build on the progressive work pioneered by Labour locally and nationally over the past two decades. I want to be instrumental in winning back voter confidence in The Party and continuing the process of realising Labour’s long term vision. I’m inspired by The Party’s reiterated message about coupling talent and aspiration with the advantage of seized “opportunity” and I’m optimistic about the promise of ‘New Generation’ politics under Ed Miliband’s leadership.
Communications
- National Union of Journalists (rejoined 2016)
- Publicity Officer & Steward – Hackney UNISON (2011 – 2015)
- English Graduate – Nottingham University: English Language/Literature & Media Studies Teacher – over seven years f/t experience in VIth form colleges in the Midlands and London Secondary schools – taught in schools across East London
- TV Researcher/Asst.Producer/
Director – Freelance assignments for BBC/Channel 4 - Published writer – freelance for The Guardian & Channel 4.
Further information here on: Union Activism