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Florence Eshalomi

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Florence Eshalomi
MP
Official portrait, 2024
Member of Parliament
for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green
Vauxhall (2019–2024)
Incumbent
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byKate Hoey
Majority15,112 (40.3%)
2023–2024Democracy
2022–2023Cabinet Office
2020–2020Whip
Member of the London Assembly
for Lambeth and Southwark
In office
5 May 2016 – 6 May 2021
Preceded byValerie Shawcross
Succeeded byMarina Ahmad
Member of Lambeth Council
for Brixton Hill
In office
4 May 2006 – 3 May 2018
Personal details
Born
Florence Dauta Nosegbe

(1980-09-18) 18 September 1980 (age 44)
Birmingham, England
Political partyLabour Co-op
Alma materMiddlesex University (BA)
WebsiteOfficial website

Florence Dauta Eshalomi (née Nosegbe; born 18 September 1980) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (formerly the Vauxhall constituency) since 2019.[1][2][3] A Member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she was Member of the London Assembly (AM) for Lambeth and Southwark from 2016 to 2021.[4] After the Vauxhall constituency was abolished she was elected[5] as the MP for the newly created Vauxhall and Camberwell Green constituency in the 2024 general election.

Early life

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Born Florence Nosegbe in Birmingham, she is the daughter of Anthony Nosegbe and of Nigerian descent.[6][7] She is a lifelong Brixton resident and the eldest of three girls from a single parent family.[8][7] Her mother, the late Maria Da-Silva, worked as a school teacher until her illness forced her to retire early. Florence supported her mother, who suffered from sickle cell anaemia and kidney failure, as her carer.[7]

Eshalomi attended local schools in Lambeth including Durand Primary (now Van Gogh) and St Helen's RC Primary school and Bishop Thomas Grant Secondary School. She completed her A-Levels at St Francis Xavier Sixth Form College in Clapham South. She is the first member of her family to go to university, graduating with a BA Hons in Political & International Studies with Law from Middlesex University. Florence benefited from the EU Funded 'Erasmus Student Exchange' and had the opportunity to study at Utrecht University for a semester.[9]

Eshalomi started her working life as a 16-year-old at Sainsbury's supermarket, Clapham High Street. She has worked in a variety of campaigning and public affairs roles including in local government as a policy officer, as a regional organiser for the Labour Party during the 2005 general election and as the Public Affairs Manager for the UK's leading race equality think tank, the Runnymede Trust.

Political career

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Prior to winning her seat on the London Assembly, she worked for the PR agency Four Communications as a public affairs account manager.[10]

Eshalomi served as a local councillor from Brixton Hill on Lambeth London Borough Council.[11] She represented the ward along with future Labour MP Steve Reed.

Eshalomi has previously served as a member of the Progress Strategy Board.[12] In 2016, The Times reported that "one of Momentum's most militant factions" planned to picket an event held to support Eshalomi's candidacy for the London Assembly.[13] MPs including Chuka Umunna, Ben Bradshaw and Stella Creasy strongly criticised the picket, and a spokesperson for Momentum stated that the picket was organised by a separate group and that "Momentum are fully behind Flo's campaign."[14] In the 2015 leadership election Eshalomi supported Liz Kendall to become Labour Party leader.[15]

Eshalomi was elected to the London Assembly on 5 May 2016 with a majority of 62,243 over the Conservative Party candidate Robert Flint.[16] She was lead spokesperson for the London Assembly Labour Group on Transport issues, and current Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee.[17]

As an Assembly Member, Eshalomi has campaigned on issues including gang crime[18] and the closure of Kennington Police Station.[19][20]

Eshalomi was selected as Labour candidate for the Vauxhall parliamentary constituency on 27 October 2019, after Kate Hoey, a long-standing MP of 30 years, had announced she would not stand again as Labour's candidate in the constituency. Eshalomi won the seat with a slightly reduced majority of 19,612 votes.[21][22][23]

Eshalomi made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 17 January 2020. She said that "I never imagined that almost five years to the day, as I was literally pacing up and down the maternity ward, looking over the river, trying to coerce my daughter to come out, I would now be sat in this Parliament fighting for funding for our hard-working doctors and nurses" in reference to St Thomas' Hospital in her Vauxhall constituency. Eshalomi also prioritised more funding for the NHS and Police, and to focus on tackling youth violence and young women facing sexual exploitation.[24] On 14 April 2020, Eshalomi was promoted to the opposition front bench as a whip.[25]

Eshalomi and her fellow black female MPs have frequently been mistaken for each other since entering parliament, with Eshalomi herself being twice mistaken for black female colleagues in the nine months since her election. Eshalomi said of the misidentifications that "The frequency is worrying and lends itself to a lazy racist view that all black people look the same". Eshalomi was wrongly identified as Taiwo Owatemi by BBC Parliament and a fellow MP ran up to her thinking she was Kate Osamor. During Eshalomi's time on the London Assembly, she was mistaken for Conservative Kemi Badenoch, then a fellow assembly member. Eshalomi wrote that "All those women I've referenced are individual politicians in their own right...They're women who fought to get elected. So they deserve to be named and not to be confused with other black women. This doesn't happen to some of my white female colleagues, who sometimes have their hair down, sometimes they'll have it back in a ponytail. So why is it, if we as black women change our hair or our appearance, you can't recognise us?"[26]

On 30 December 2020, Eshalomi abstained on the Future Trade Agreement between the UK and the EU, resulting in her resignation as an opposition whip.[27][non-primary source needed]

In May 2021, Eshalomi returned to the Labour front bench as the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Angela Rayner, the Shadow First Secretary of State and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.[28][29]

In June 2021, a 59-year-old man from Brixton was prosecuted after sending a stream of abusive messages to Eshalomi between December 2020 and February 2021.[30]

In the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Democracy.[31]

In November 2023, Eshalomi abstained on an SNP motion for a King's Speech amendment calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.[32] After the vote, she immediately clarified her support for a humanitarian ceasefire[33] and has called for one in Parliament on several occasions.[34]

Personal life

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Eshalomi married Matthew in 2014. They have two children, who were born at St Thomas' Hospital.[7][35] She is a Christian, and attends Our Lady Of The Rosary Roman Catholic church in Brixton.[36]

Electoral history

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2024 general election

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General election 2024: Vauxhall and Camberwell Green[37]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Co-op Florence Eshalomi 21,528 57.4 –3.1
Green Catherine Dawkins 6,416 17.1 +13.0
Liberal Democrats Chris French 4,549 12.1 –7.0
Conservative Aarti Joshi 2,809 7.5 –7.0
Reform UK Mike King 2,033 5.4 +3.8
SDP Andrew McRobbie 201 0.5 N/A
Majority 15,112 40.3 –1.1
Turnout 37,536 53.9 –12.4
Registered electors 69,658
Labour hold Swing Decrease8.1

2019 general election

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General election 2019: Vauxhall[38]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Co-op Florence Eshalomi 31,615 56.1 Decrease1.2
Liberal Democrats Sarah Lewis 12,003 21.3 Increase0.8
Conservative Sarah Bool 9,422 16.7 Decrease1.9
Green Jacqueline Bond 2,516 4.5 Increase2.4
Brexit Party Andrew McGuinness 641 1.1 N/A
Independent Salah Faissal 136 0.2 N/A
Majority 19,612 34.8 Decrease1.9
Turnout 56,333 63.5 Decrease3.6
Registered electors 88,659
Labour hold Swing Decrease1.0

2016 London Assembly election

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2016 London Assembly election: Lambeth and Southwark[citation needed]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Florence Eshalomi 96,946 51.6 −1.2
Conservative Robert Flint 34,703 18.5 −0.9
Liberal Democrats Michael Bukola 21,489 11.4 −0.3
UKIP Idham Ramadi 6,591 3.5 +0.7
Socialist (GB) Kevin Parkin 1,333 0.7 −1.2
All People's Party Amadu Kanumansa 906 0.5 N/A
Majority 62,242 33.1 −0.3
Total formal votes 187,761 98.8 +0.3
Informal votes 2,229 1.2 +0.3
Turnout 189,990 44 +6.7

2014 Lambeth London Borough Council election

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2014 Lambeth London Borough Council election: Brixton Hill (3 seats)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Adrian Garden 1,849
Labour Florence Eshalomi * 1,791
Labour Martin Tiedemann 1,560
Green Roger Baker 818
Green Andrew Child 768
Green Betty Mehari 719
Conservative James Calder 415
Conservative Charles Tankard 381
Conservative Michael Woolley 310
UKIP Paul Gregory 254
Liberal Democrats Chris Keating 244
Liberal Democrats Liz Maffei 231
Liberal Democrats Adam Pritchard 228
TUSC Lisa Bainbridge 132
TUSC Alex Richardson 83
TUSC Jessica Walters 74
Total votes 9,857
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing

2010 Lambeth London Borough Council election

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2010 Lambeth London Borough Council election: Brixton Hill (3 seats)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Alexander Holland 2,805
Labour Steve Reed * 2,699
Labour Florence Nosegbe * 2,648
Liberal Democrats Kate Horstead 2,100
Liberal Democrats Krystal Johnson 1,873
Liberal Democrats John Mead 1,560
Green Thomas Law 1,108
Green Elkin Atwell 1,023
Conservative Tim Briggs 873
Green Phillipa Marlowe-Hunt 850
Conservative Victoria Edwards * 768
Conservative Diana Thompson 688
Total votes 18,995
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "NOTICE OF ELECTION AGENTS' NAMES AND OFFICES: Election of a member of the London Assembly for the Lambeth & Southwark Constituency" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  2. ^ "Florence Dauta ESHALOMI – Personal Appointments". Companies House. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  3. ^ Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. p. 369. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  4. ^ "Florence Eshalomi". London Assembly Website. Greater London Authority. Archived from the original on 1 August 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  5. ^ Bloch, Matthew; Gómez, Martín González; Sieh, Isabel; Uberoy, Urvashi (4 July 2024). "United Kingdom 2024 Election: Labour Wins". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  6. ^ "5 Interesting Facts About Florence Eshalomi – The Nigerian Woman Who Wants To Join The London Assembly". woman.NG. 21 March 2016. Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d "Eshalomi, Florence, (born Sept. 1980), MP (Lab Co-op) Vauxhall, since 2019; Member (Lab) Lambeth and Southwark, London Assembly, Greater London Authority, since 2016". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u287537. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  8. ^ "40 under 40 Revisited". The MJ. 19 September 2018. Archived from the original on 29 February 2020. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  9. ^ "Florence Eshalomi: "Covid has shone a spotlight on what needs to change"". 3 August 2020.
  10. ^ "Four Communications account manager wins London Assembly seat". PRWeek magazine. 11 March 2018. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  11. ^ "Councillor Florence Eshalomi". Lambeth Website. Lambeth Council. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  12. ^ "Register of interests for Councillor Florence Eshalomi | Lambeth Council". 22 July 2019. Archived from the original on 22 July 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  13. ^ Fisher, Lucy (18 March 2016). "Momentum activists will picket Labour candidate". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  14. ^ "'Momentum' Will Picket This Woman's Fundraiser But Labour MPs Are Having None Of It". HuffPost. 18 March 2016. Archived from the original on 2 April 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  15. ^ "100 Labour Councillors Back Liz Kendall For Leader". HuffPost. 1 July 2015. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
  16. ^ Cobb, Jason (6 May 2016). "Brixton Hill Cllr Florence Eshalomi elected to represent Lambeth and Southwark in the London Assembly". Brixton Buzz. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  17. ^ "London Assembly – Membership of Committees/Bodies and Terms of Reference 2019/20 | London Assembly" (PDF). london.gov.uk. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2019. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  18. ^ "Florence Eshalomi: We must not forget the girls involved with London's gangs | OnLondon". onlondon.co.uk. 15 May 2019. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  19. ^ "The Future of Kennington Police Station". LambethLife. Archived from the original on 17 August 2019. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  20. ^ "Oasis charity keen to buy Kennington Police Station". London SE1. 14 June 2018. Archived from the original on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  21. ^ Rodgers, Sienna (27 October 2019). "Super Sunday: Labour candidate selection results". LabourList. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
  22. ^ Williams, Zoe (28 October 2019). "How to replace Kate Hoey? My local party showed that stitch-ups aren't working". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  23. ^ "Contact information for Florence Eshalomi - MPS and Lords - UK Parliament". Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  24. ^ "Vauxhall MP Florence Eshalomi makes maiden speech in Commons". London SE1. 17 January 2020. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  25. ^ "Parliamentary career for Florence Eshalomi - MPS and Lords - UK Parliament".
  26. ^ "Florence Eshalomi: Black MP mistaken for colleagues condemns racism". BBC News. 5 June 2020. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  27. ^ @FloEshalomi (30 December 2020). "Thank you to all #Vauxhall constituents who've contacted me about the EU(Future Relationship)Bill. This bill was ru…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  28. ^ "Keir Starmer appoints northern MP to build bridges with backbenchers". The Guardian. 14 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  29. ^ Cobb, Jason (18 May 2021). "Vauxhall MP Florence Eshalomi joins Angela Rayner's top team as competing Labour factions start to build coalitions". Brixton Buzz. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  30. ^ Kirk, Tristan (17 June 2021). "Online troll prosecuted after sending stream of abuse to Labour MP". Evening Standard. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  31. ^ "Meet our Shadow Cabinet". The Labour Party. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  32. ^ "How did your MP vote on the Gaza ceasefire motion?". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  33. ^ @FloEshalomi (15 November 2023). "I have received many emails from constituents. I have made my position clear in that I support a humanitarian ceasefire..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  34. ^ "Israel and Gaza - Hansard - UK Parliament". Hansard. 19 March 2024.
  35. ^ Morrison-Sloan, Megan. "About Me". Florence Eshalomi for Lambeth & Southwark. Labour Party. Archived from the original on 25 April 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  36. ^ "The Labour Party understands the role of churches in changing our country".
  37. ^ "Vauxhall and Camberwell Green Constituency" (PDF). London Borough of Lambeth. 5 July 2024. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  38. ^ "Statement of Persons Nominated" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 March 2020.
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