Val Shawcross

Who is Val Shawcross?

Valerie Shawcross CBE is a Labour Party politician and member of the London Assembly for Lambeth and Southwark. Shawcross was the Labour Co-operative candidate for Bermondsey and Old Southwark at the 2010 general election.

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 is currently the Labour London Assembly Spokesperson for Transport and Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee. She also currently serves 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, then Leader of Croydon Council.

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 for the safe Labour seat of Croydon North to Steve Reed for the 2012 Croydon North by-election after a meeting was held on 3 November 2012 of the local Croydon North Labour Association.