Political career
London Assembly and Deputy Mayoralty
She was first elected to the London Assembly in 2000,and retained her seat in subsequent elections. In 2000,the mayor of London Ken Livingstone appointed her as the chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA). [6] She accepted the appointment on the condition that she would "consider herself bound by Labour's policies and not the mayor's",with Livingstone at the time being an independent politician. [7] In his memoir,Livingstone wrote that she "spent the next eight years transforming the London Fire Brigade,leading to a dramatic reduction in loss of life from fires,cutting waste and,later,organising emergency response procedures after 9/11". [8] At the same time,she served as the Labour group's spokesperson for transport and as chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee. She also served on the Assembly Budget Scrutiny Committee,and chaired the audit committee immediately following her election. [9]
On 7 December 2010,it was announced that Shawcross would be Livingstone's running-mate in the 2012 London mayoral election,Ken Livingstone. [10] Shawcross unsuccessfully sought selection as the Labour candidate for the 2012 Croydon North by-election,with Steve Reed becoming the candidate and winning the seat. [11] 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 as deputy mayor of London for transport and deputy chair of Transport for London. [12] In May 2018,she announced her retirement. [13]
Retirement and Croydon Mayoralty
Following her retirement from full-time public life in 2018,she worked as chair of the Heathrow Area Transport Forum, [14] and assumed roles in the Thames Festival Trust and Crystal Palace Park Trust. [15] [16]
In October 2021,Shawcross announced her intention to stand to be the first directly elected Mayor of Croydon. [17] [18] She was selected as Croydon Labour's 2022 mayoral candidate in December 2021. Shawcross was narrowly defeated by Conservative Jason Perry in the May 2022 Croydon Mayoral election,who won with a majority of less than 600 votes in the second round. [19] [20] Her campaign was damaged by dissatisfaction with the Labour-held Council,which had led the borough into bankruptcy. [21]
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