Ken Livingstone (Mayor of London) - Information, Featured Articles, London's Movers & Shakers

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Ken Livingstone (Mayor of London)

Ken Livingstone was born in Lambeth in 1945 and educated at Tulse Hill Comprehensive School.

After eight years working as a technician at the Chester Beatty Cancer Research Institute in London, he entered Phillipa Fawcett Teacher Training College, qualifying in 1973.

He was a member of Lambeth Council between 1971 and 1978, holding the position of vice-chair of the housing committee from 1971-73 and from 1978 to 1982 a member of Camden Council, where he was chair of the housing committee from 1978-80.

He was a member of the Regional Executive of the Greater London Labour Party from 1974 until 1986.

In 1973 he became a member of the GLC. Vice chair of housing management from 1974 to 1975, he was elected Leader in 1981. He was a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party 1987-89.

In the 1979 General Election he was Labour candidate for Hampstead and Highgate, and in 1987 he became MP for Brent East, re-elected in 1992 with a six per cent swing to Labour.

He has written two books, If Voting Changed Anything They'd Abolish It (1987) and Livingstone's Labour (1989).

Since entering Parliament he has specialised in economic policy, and served on the Labour Party economic policy review group. He publishes Socialist Economic Bulletin, and is vice-president of the London Zoological Society.

In September 1997 he was re-elected to Labour's National Executive Committee.

When he failed to be chosen as the Labour Party's official candidate in the London mayoral election in 2000, he decided - incurring the extreme displeasure of the Prime Minister as a result - to stand as an Independent and won with a huge majority.