Navin Shah

Who is Navin Shah?

Navin Shah is a British Labour politician. Navin is an architect by profession. He was born in Ahmedabad, Gujurat, India and came to the UK as a University College London scholar in 1973. He worked as an Architect and Development Planner and joined the Labour party in 1977 after becoming involved in Community Action groups in Brent and Harrow. He was elected as a Harrow Councillor for Kenton East Ward in 1994. Navin was Leader of Harrow Council from 2004 to 2006, and remained the Harrow Labour Group Leader until June 2008. He is a founder member and trustee of the Harrow Anti-Racist Alliance, serving as the Executive Member for Harrow Council of Racial Equality, is a member of the Ethnic Minority Taskforce and a Governor of Glebe School. In 2006, he received an Asian Achievers Award.

He was elected as a member of the London Assembly at the 2008 assembly elections, taking the constituency seat of Brent and Harrow, beating Conservative incumbent Bob Blackman. In 2012, he was re-elected, increasing his majority by eighteen times and seeing off competition from the conservative candidate Sachin Rajput.

A member of the Fabian Society, Navin remains especially interested in community cohesion and planning, regeneration and housing. He is currently serving on the Police and Crime Committee, the Planning and Regeneration Committee and is the lead Labour Group member for the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. Locally, Navin Shah has been involved in different causes. Navin is the founder and trustee of the Harrow Anti Racist Alliance, member of the Harrow Taskforce and a Governor of the Glebe School in Harrow. Navin has been involved with several campaigns such as 'Save Our Cells', which fights against the closure of the police cells in Harrow, 'Save the Ticket Offices' which fought to keep ticket offices open in Harrow and Brent stations and the campaign to regenerate the Brent Cross shopping centre.