Brixton’s Florence Eshalomi is new London Assembly member

Florence Eshalomi, who grew up in the Somerleyton estate in Brixton and whose family still live there, is the new representative for Lambeth and Southwark on the Greater London Assembly.

“As the eldest of three girls from a single-parent family. I started working at the age of 16 in Sainsbury’s and had to juggle the demands of family responsibilities, education and employment from a young age,” she said when her candidature was announced.

“I am the first member of my family to go to university and have campaigned for access to good local education and additional training to ensure all young people have an opportunity achieve the best start in life.”

Eshalomi is also a Lambeth councillor, representing Brixton Hill.

Among her council roles was Lambeth’s first “gangs tsar” or special representative for tackling youth violence.

She works in public affairs, “leading and delivering integrated communications and community engagement in planning, development and regeneration”.

In 2008 she worked for Barack Obama’s election campaign.

Another new London assembly member with Lambeth links is Conservative Kemi Badenoch who contested the parliamentary seat of Dulwich and West Norwood in 2010 and was a governor of Jubilee primary school on Tulse Hill. She was elected from the London-wide pool of candidates.

Women’s Equality Party does well

One of the most notable aspects of the election was the performance of the Women’s Equality Party. It did well across London and in our Lambeth & Southwark constituency polled nearly 10,000 votes – a lot more than either UKIP or Respect.

Some 190,000 people, a turnout of 43%, voted for the Lambeth and Southwark Greater London Assembly member.

These are the results:

There were more than 2,000 spoilt ballot papers