Polly Billington

Last updated

Polly Billington
Official portrait of Cllr Polly Billington.jpg
EducationUrsuline High School Wimbledon
Occupations
  • Politician
  • Environmentalist
Political party Labour Party

Polly Billington (born 1967) is a campaigner and politician who worked as a journalist before becoming a special advisor to Ed Miliband. She was the media director for his successful bid in the 2010 Labour leadership election. [1] Billington is the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for East Thanet [2] and previously was the candidate for Thurrock at the 2015 general election and a Labour Party official. She founded UK100, [3] and was a councillor until 2024 for De Beauvoir ward in the London Borough of Hackney.

Contents

Education

Billington went to the Ursuline High School in Wimbledon and Sussex University before taking a postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Central Lancashire in 1993. [4]

Professional career

Billington was a BBC reporter for the Today programme, News 24, the 'Politics Show' 'Newsbeat and on Radio 1 as the first ever dedicated Political Reporter for Newsbeat.

Polly was the Head of Communications and Campaigns at Citizens Advice from Jan 2013 - January 2015, coordinating campaigns on energy, welfare and payday loans, before resigning to fight the highly marginal three-way contest of Thurrock at the General Election. [5]

Billington founded UK100 in 2016, [3] the only network for UK locally elected leaders who have pledged to play their part in the global effort to avoid the worst impacts of climate change by switching to 100% clean energy by 2050. The most ambitious - UK100's Net Zero Local Leadership Club. [6] - are doing everything within their power to get their communities to Net Zero as soon as possible, and by 2045 at the latest.

She served as the CEO until February 2023 when she was selected as Labour's parliamentary candidate for South Thanet. [7]

She received the Business Green Leader of the Year Award in 2023. “The judges hailed Polly Billington for her inspirational role in establishing UK100 as one of the most respected and important voices on climate policy in the UK - an achievement that has provided hundreds of local government leaders with the tools, support, and guidance they need to catalyse the net zero transition right across the real economy.” [8]

UK100 is funded by various grant-giving organisations. [9] One is the IKEA Foundation [10] who awarded UK100 £350,000 in 2022 and £456,000 in 2021.. UK100's total income from grants in 2022 was £1.2 million and in 2021, £1.35 million. Politico Europe reported in May 2023 that Billington had accepted a Senior Adviser role at the PR lobbying firm Hanover Communications - in their election planning team. [11]

Politics

She became a special adviser to Ed Miliband in 2007 when he was working on party policy and election strategy in the Cabinet Office [12] and according to The Daily Telegraph she was the 59th most influential person on the UK left in 2011. [13]

Billington sought to become a parliamentary candidate in February 2010, when she was shortlisted for the safe Labour seat of North Tyneside. She was the media director for Ed Miliband's successful Labour leadership bid. [14] Some credited her with honing his questions and replies to David Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions. [15] [16]

In November 2011, Billington launched another bid to be selected as a Labour MP, this time in Thurrock. [17] This time she gained the nomination for a marginal seat. She was one of 15 Labour candidates each given financial support of £10,000 by Lord Matthew Oakeshott the former Liberal Democrat in January 2015. [18] The tight three-way contest resulted in a Tory hold by 536 votes over Billington with UKIP coming third.

Billington worked on Sadiq Khan's campaign to be selected as Labour’s candidate to be Mayor of London, leading on communications. [19]

She was one of two Labour Party councillors elected to De Beauvoir ward in the 2018 Hackney London Borough Council election, with 1,448 votes. [20] She was reelected in 2022, with 1,400 votes. [21]

She has served as Chair of the Skills Economy and Growth Commission at Hackney Council since 2021.

Among other roles, Billington has served as an Executive Member of SERA, Labour's Environment Campaign [22] and is on the advisory group of Labour Climate and Environment Forum. [23]

On 24 February 2023 she was selected by local party members as the parliamentary candidate for East Thanet at the next general election. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane Abbott</span> British politician (born 1953)

Diane Julie Abbott is a British politician who is a serving Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since being elected in 1987. She served in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Home Secretary from 2016 to 2020 and is an advisor to the Privy Council. She is both the first black woman elected to parliament and the longest-serving black MP. She remains a member of the Labour Party, while sitting in the House of Commons as an independent, having had the whip suspended in April 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Twigg</span> British Labour Co-op politician

Stephen Twigg is a British Labour Co-op politician who has served as the 8th Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association since August 2020. He served as Member of Parliament for Enfield Southgate from 1997 to 2005, and for Liverpool West Derby from 2010 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen Buck</span> British Labour politician

Karen Patricia Buck is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Westminster North, previously Regent's Park and Kensington North, since 1997. A member of the Labour Party, she was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport from 2005 to 2006 and served as Shadow Minister for Social Security from 2020 to 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meg Hillier</span> British Labour Co-op politician

Dame Margaret Olivia Hillier, known as Meg Hillier, is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney South and Shoreditch at the 2005 general election. Hillier was a junior government minister (2007–10) and was succeeded by Caroline Flint as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the Labour Party October 2011 reshuffle. She has chaired the Public Accounts Committee since 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Miliband</span> British politician (born 1969)

Edward Samuel Miliband is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliband was Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition between 2010 and 2015. Alongside his brother, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, he served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010 under Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thurrock (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1945 onwards

Thurrock is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Jackie Doyle-Price, a Conservative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Sandys</span> British politician (born 1964)

Laura Jane Sandys is a former chair of the European Movement UK, and a British Conservative Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet between 2010 and 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thanet East (UK Parliament constituency)</span>

Thanet East was a British parliamentary constituency in the Isle of Thanet in Kent. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1974 to 1983.

Harriet Bronwen Yeo is a British trade unionist, a former Treasurer and President of Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA), and a UK Independence Party (UKIP) politician who stood unsuccessfully for parliament in Folkestone and Hythe at the 2015 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Oakeshott, Baron Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay</span> British politician (born 1947)

Matthew Alan Oakeshott, Baron Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay, is a British investment manager and member of the House of Lords, formerly sitting in Parliament as a Liberal Democrat.

Pamela Nash is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Airdrie and Shotts between 2010 and 2015. She is currently the Chief Executive of Scotland in Union, a campaign group launched in March 2015 to help keep Scotland within the United Kingdom. During her time in Parliament, she was the youngest MP in the House of Commons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stella Creasy</span> British Labour Co-op politician

Stella Judith Creasy is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for the London constituency of Walthamstow since 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Reynolds</span> British Labour politician

Emma Elizabeth Reynolds is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton North East from 2010 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she attended the shadow cabinets of Miliband and Harman from 2013 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liz Kendall</span> British Labour politician

Elizabeth Louise Kendall is a British Labour politician who has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since 2023. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester West since 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election</span>

On 13 January 2011, a by-election was held for the UK House of Commons constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth. Labour Party candidate Debbie Abrahams held the seat for her party with an increased majority over the Liberal Democrats, succeeding Phil Woolas, whose victory in the 2010 general election had been declared void because he had knowingly made false statements attacking his Liberal Democrat opponent's personal character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Powell</span> British politician (born 1974)

Lucy Maria Powell is a British politician serving as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons since 2023. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Central since 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 United Kingdom general election</span>

The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 May 2015 to elect 650 Members of Parliament to the House of Commons. It was the only general election held under the rules of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 and was the last general election to be held before the United Kingdom would vote to end its membership of the European Union (EU). Local elections took place in most areas of England on the same day.

Jessica Asato is a British Labour Party politician. She was selected in 2012 as the parliamentary candidate for Norwich North at the 2015 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feryal Clark</span> British Labour politician

Feryal Demirci Clark is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Enfield North since 2019.

The 2024 London mayoral election is due to be held on 2 May 2024 to elect the next mayor of London. It will take place simultaneously with elections to the London Assembly, some local council by-elections in London and regular local elections elsewhere in England and Wales. Following the Elections Act 2022, voting in this election will take place under the first-past-the-post system for the first time, replacing the supplementary vote system.

References

  1. ↑ "Channel Four, Who Knows Who" . Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  2. ↑ "Polly Billington for East Thanet". Polly Billington. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  3. 1 2 "UK100" . Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  4. ↑ "University of Central Lancashire, Graduate returns for the Newsbeat challenge" . Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  5. ↑ "Citizen Advice hires Top Labour advisor Polly Billington" . Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  6. ↑ "UK100 members" . Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  7. ↑ "Labour's Polly Billington selected to fight for current South Thanet seat in next General Election". 27 February 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2023.}
  8. ↑ "UK Green Business Awards: And the winner is..." 30 June 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  9. ↑ "UK100 | Frequently asked questions | UK100". www.uk100.org. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  10. ↑ Heerkens, Indra (1 April 2022). "Polly Billington, UK100: "To achieve net zero, we must unleash the potential of local government"". IKEA Foundation. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  11. ↑ "London Influence: Hanover's Labour grab — Open government latest — Meet Ridgeway". POLITICO. 25 May 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  12. ↑ "Civil Service Live Network" . Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  13. ↑ "The Top 100 Most Influential People on the Left 2011: 51–75" . Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  14. ↑ "Channel Four, Who Knows Who" . Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  15. ↑ "Ed Miliband's Dartmouth Park posse". 12 April 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  16. ↑ "Top 100 most influential figures from the Left 2012: 51-100". The Daily Telegraph. London. 3 October 2012.
  17. ↑ "Polly Billington's Bid For Thurrock – An Escape From Ed Strategy?". 14 October 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  18. ↑ "Former Lib Dem Lord Oakeshott donates £300,000 to Labour candidates". New Statesman. 21 January 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  19. ↑ "Who's who on Team Sadiq". 22 May 2015.
  20. ↑ "Borough councillors election 2018". hackney.gov.uk. Hackney Council. 4 May 2018. Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  21. ↑ "Council election results". hackney.gov.uk. Hackney Council. 6 May 2022.
  22. ↑ "SERA's 2016/17 Executive Committee". SERA - Labour's Environment Campaign. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  23. ↑ "LCEF who we are".
  24. ↑ Neame, Katie (27 February 2023). "Two more local Labour Parties select their next parliamentary candidates". LabourList | Latest UK Labour Party news, analysis and comment. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.