Elly Baker | |
---|---|
Member of the London Assembly for Londonwide | |
Assumed office 6 May 2021 | |
Personal details | |
Political party | Labour |
Website | ellybaker |
Eleanor Anna "Elly" Baker (born April 1977) [1] is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the London Assembly (AM) for Londonwide since 2021. [2] She worked as an organiser for the National Education Union. [3]
Baker grew up in East London and was educated in Hackney. [4]
For Baker's nomination as a Labour candidate for the London Assembly, she received endorsements from Sam Tarry, GMB, Fire Brigades Union, BFAWU, ASLEF, Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union. [4]
Baker was elected to the London Assembly in 2021 and was subsequently re-elected in 2024. [5]
She is the Labour group spokesperson on Transport. During her time on the London Assembly, Baker has successfully campaigned against the closure of train ticket offices in London. She has supported a new concession fare on TfL for care leaves between 18 and 25, which will support 16,000 London who have left state care to build independent lives without the support of a family.
Baker is a strong supporter of HS2, [6] criticising the Government for cancelling the northern leg of the project, [7] and for the construction of Crossrail 2 in London after the success of Crossrail 1.
Assembly Member Baker has used her platform to advocate for public ownership of train services, condemning the poor performance record of Train Operating Companies that serve London in comparison to those run by TfL. [8]
As well as her campaigning on transport, Assembly Member Baker has supported the campaign to save the English National Opera [9] and LGBT+ venue Bethnal Green Working Men's Club in East London. [10]
Bethnal Green is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By the 16th century the term applied to a wider rural area, the Hamlet of Bethnal Green, which subsequently became a Parish, then a Metropolitan Borough before merging with neighbouring areas to become the north-western part of the new Tower Hamlets.
Crossrail is a completed railway project centred on London. It provides a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system, known as the Elizabeth line, that crosses the capital from suburbs on the west to east and connects two major railway lines terminating in London: the Great Western Main Line and the Great Eastern Main Line. The project was approved in 2007, and construction began in 2009 on the central section and connections to existing lines that became part of the route, which has been named the Elizabeth line in honour of Queen Elizabeth II who opened the line on 17 May 2022 during her Platinum Jubilee. The central section of the line between Paddington and Abbey Wood opened on 24 May 2022, with 12 trains per hour running in each direction through the core section in Central London.
Acton Main Line is a railway station on the Great Western Main Line in Acton, west London, England. Located 4 miles 21 chains (6.9 km) down the line from London Paddington between Paddington and Ealing Broadway stations. The station is served and managed by the Elizabeth line. The station was rebuilt with step-free access as part of the Crossrail project. It is in fare zone 3.
Shoreditch High Street is a London Overground station located on Bethnal Green Road in Shoreditch in East London. It is served by the East London Line between Whitechapel and Hoxton with services running either to Dalston Junction, Highbury & Islington or New Cross, New Cross Gate, West Croydon, Crystal Palace, and is in Travelcard Zone 1.
Crossrail 2 is a suspended proposal for a hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit route in South East England, running from nine stations in Surrey to three in Hertfordshire, providing a new North–South rail link across Greater London. It would connect the South West Main Line to the West Anglia Main Line, via Victoria and King's Cross St Pancras. The intent was to alleviate severe overcrowding that would otherwise occur on commuter rail routes into Central London. When first proposed, the hope was for construction to start around 2023, with the new line opening from the early 2030s. The project's cost has been estimated at £31.2 billion.
Old Oak Common (OOC) is a railway station under construction on the site of the Old Oak Common traction maintenance depot to the west of London in Old Oak Common, approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) south of Willesden Junction station. When built, it is expected to be one of the largest rail hubs in London, at about 800 m (2,600 ft) in length and 20 m (66 ft) below surface level.
High Speed 2 (HS2) is a high-speed railway which is under construction in England. The line will run between Handsacre, in southern Staffordshire, and London, with a spur to Birmingham. HS2 is to be Britain's second purpose-built high-speed railway after High Speed 1, which connects London to the Channel Tunnel. London and Birmingham will be served directly by new high speed track, and services to Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester will use a mix of new high speed track and the existing West Coast Main Line. The majority of the project is planned to be completed by 2033.
Rushanara Ali is a British politician who has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 2010 and as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Homelessness and Rough Sleeping since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she was the first British Bangladeshi elected to Parliament.
The West London Orbital is a proposed extension to the London Overground railway system. The extension would make use of a combination of existing freight and passenger lines including the Dudding Hill Line, North London Line and Hounslow Loop. The route would run for approximately 11 miles (17 km) from West Hampstead and Hendon at the northern end to Hounslow at the western end via Brent Cross West, Neasden, Harlesden, Old Oak Common, South Acton and Brentford.
Dame Jacqueline Doyle-Price is a British former Conservative Party politician and former civil servant who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Thurrock from 2010 to 2024. She was first elected as MP in the 2010 general election and was defeated in the 2024 general election.
Heidi Alexander is a British politician who has served as Minister of State for Courts and Legal Services since July 2024. A member of the Labour party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Swindon South since 2024. In addition, she was also the MP for Lewisham East from 2010 to 2018, and served as Deputy Mayor of London for Transport from 2018 to 2021.
Polly Billington is a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament for East Thanet since 2024.
The British Rail Class 345 Aventra is a fleet of electric multiple unit passenger trains built by Bombardier Transportation for use on London's Elizabeth line. Part of Bombardier's Aventra family of trains, the contract for their delivery was awarded as part of the Crossrail project in February 2014. A total of 70 nine-car units – each able to carry 1,500 passengers – were constructed in Derby between 2015 and 2019, at a cost of over £1 billion. The first unit entered service on 22 June 2017.
The People's Pledge was a political campaign to secure a referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union. It aimed to achieve this by asking voters to sign a pledge that they would use their vote to help secure a majority of Members of Parliament (MPs) in support of an in-out referendum on EU membership. The 1975 European Communities membership referendum was the last time such a vote had occurred in Britain.
Amanda Jane Solloway is a British politician who served as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from September 2022 to July 2024 and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Affordability and Skills from February 2023 to July 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, she was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby North between 2019 and 2024, having previously served from 2015 to 2017.
Daniel Michael Gerald Moylan, Baron Moylan is an English Conservative politician and a member of the House of Lords.
The Elizabeth line is a high-frequency hybrid urban–suburban rail service in London and its suburbs. It runs services on dedicated infrastructure in central London from the Great Western Main Line west of Paddington station to Abbey Wood and via Whitechapel to the Great Eastern Main Line near Stratford; along the Great Western Main Line to Reading and Heathrow Airport in the west; and along the Great Eastern Main Line to Shenfield in the east. The service is named after Queen Elizabeth II, who officially opened the line on 17 May 2022 during her Platinum Jubilee year; passenger services started on 24 May 2022. Elizabeth line services are operated by MTR Elizabeth line under a concession from Transport for London (TfL). Despite being named under the same system as London Underground lines, and having sections which are underground, the Elizabeth line is not classified as a London Underground line.
Munira Hassam Wilson is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Twickenham since 2019. She has served as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for education since 2021 under Sir Ed Davey, and previously as the spokesperson for health, wellbeing and social care from 2020 to 2021.
The accessibility of public transport services in Greater London is incomplete. Much of the rail network in London was built before accessibility was a requirement. Unlike in the United States, Underground stations built in the 1960s and 1970s made no provision for the disabled, with wheelchair users banned from deep level Underground lines until 1993.