Political Career
Gavron first became interested in politics in the 1970s when she campaigned against the widening of the Archway Road in London. In an interview with the Guardian she said, "It was in the days when everyone thought road widening was the answer, but the penny dropped for me that it was part of the problem."
In 1986, following the abolition of the Greater London Council, she was elected as a Labour councillor for Archway ward in the London Borough of Haringey. She was leader of the London Planning Advisory Committee from 1994 until it was absorbed into the Greater London Authority. She was elected London Assembly Member for Enfield and Haringey in the 2000 London Assembly election and was Deputy Mayor of London from May 2000 until June 2003, when the Mayor, Ken Livingstone, appointed Jenny Jones, of the Green Party to succeed her.
Although she was selected as Labour's mayoral candidate for the 2004 elections, she stepped aside when Ken Livingstone was readmitted to the party. In the 2004 London Assembly election she was re-elected as a Londonwide Labour Assembly Member on the party list. Shortly after the election, Livingstone once again appointed her to the position of Deputy Mayor. Gavron was supposed to take up a position as acting Mayor during Livingstone's suspension for four weeks from 1 March 2006; but a High Court order froze the suspension, allowing Livingstone to remain in office.
Gavron stood for the Barnet and Camden London Assembly seat in the 2008 GLA elections against Conservative incumbent, Brian Coleman. Although she was unsuccessful in this contest she increased the Labour share of the vote in the constituency and was reelected to the Assembly on the London-wide list vote.
Gavron ceased to be Deputy Mayor on 4 May 2008 following Boris Johnson's victory in the 2008 London Mayoral election. She has since been elected Chair of the London Assembly's Housing and Planning Committee.
Gavron is a former member of the Safer London Committee and the Metropolitan Police Authority. She also served on the Mayor's Advisory Cabinet, holding the portfolio for spatial development and strategic planning. In this capacity she was the driving force behind much of the Mayor's environment and planning policy, overseeing the London Plan.
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