Leonie Cooper Explained

Honorific-Prefix:Councillor
Leonie Cooper
Honorific-Suffix:AM
Office:Member of the London Assembly
for Merton and Wandsworth
Assembly:London
Term Start:7 May 2016
Majority:14,500
Predecessor:Richard Tracey
Office2:Wandsworth London Borough Councillor
for Furzedown
Term Start2:6 May 2010
Birth Date:27 December 1959
Nationality:British
Party:Labour Co-operative Party
Alma Mater:University College London
Profession:Politician
Office3:Wandsworth London Borough Councillor
for Latchmere
Term Start3:4 May 2006
Term End3:6 May 2010

Leonie Alison Cooper (born 27 December 1959[1] [2]) is a British Labour & Co-operative Party politician. Since May 2016 she has represented Merton and Wandsworth on the London Assembly. She has served as a Councillor on the Wandsworth London Borough Council since 2006, representing Latchmere 2006–10 and Furzedown ward from 2010 onwards.

Background

Prior to her election to the London Assembly, Cooper worked in the field of social housing, including as a Sustainability Manager for a large Housing group. Cooper is a vice-president of the Putney and Roehampton Branch of the United Nations Association, and chairs the Wandsworth Co-op Party. She is active as a member of the Friends of Tooting Common, which she helped set up, and served as a Governor of Eardley Primary School 2010–17. A National Executive member since 2009, she previously served as a co-chair of the Socialist Environment and Resources Association (SERA), a socialist society affiliated to the Labour Party.[3]

Political career

In the 1992 general election Cooper contested Hornchurch, coming second to the Conservative incumbent, Robin Squire.

Cooper was first elected to Wandsworth Borough Council in 2006, as a Councillor for the Latchmere ward in Battersea. In 2010, she was elected as a Councillor for the Furzedown ward in Tooting, re-elected in 2014. When Cooper was selected in 2009 for Furzedown it was a marginal ward, with Conservative and Labour Councillors.

In 2008 and 2012, Cooper contested the Merton and Wandsworth Assembly seat, losing on both occasions to Richard Tracey, although achieving an increase in the Labour vote of 5.2% and 7.5% respectively. In May 2016, Cooper defeated the Conservative candidate to become the first Labour representative for Merton and Wandsworth since the establishment of the London Assembly.[4] [5] This was the only constituency Assembly seat to change hands in the May 2016 elections. Cooper was re-elected in May 2021, increasing her majority to 14,500.

At the London Assembly Annual Meeting on 13 May 2016 Cooper was confirmed as the new Chair of the Assembly's Environment Committee 2016–18, and as a member of the Assembly's Housing Committee. Cooper was the first of the 2016 intake of Assembly Members to gain agreement for a single-member led investigation, producing her report on "Biodiversity in the new housing developments" in January 2017. The Environment Committee has already produced a number of reports under her leadership, on single-use plastic bottles, on domestic energy and fuel poverty and on parks and open spaces. These were all submitted to the Mayor prior to the launch of the Mayor's draft Environment Strategy in August 2017, and many of their recommendations now feature in it. In addition, the Mayor's draft London Plan refers to both net biodiversity gain and an Urban Greening Factor, both recommendations from Cooper's report on "Biodiversity in new housing developments".[6]

Cooper currently serves as Chair of the London Assembly's Economy Committee, and Deputy Chair of the Environment Committee.[7] She is the London Assembly Labour Group's lead spokesperson on the economy. In June 2019, she launched a new report, 'Running Out or Flooded Out?',[8] investigating the impact of water leaks, drought and flooding on London.[9] [10]

External links

Notes and References

  1. LeonieC . Leonie Cooper AM . 946033545876733952 . 27 December 2017 . Some sort of occasion today?!! Thankxxx to everyone for your lovely birthday wishes, been a lovely day so far!.
  2. Web site: Leonie Alison COOPER - Personal Appointments . . 2020-01-28.
  3. Web site: Leonie Cooper. 11 May 2016.
  4. Web site: London elections 2016: Labour's Leonie Cooper wins Merton and Wandsworth seat on London Assembly from the Tories. Wandsworth Guardian. 11 May 2016.
  5. Web site: Labour's Leonie Cooper wins GLA seat for Merton & Wandsworth to end 16 years of Conservative control. South West Londoner. 11 May 2016.
  6. Web site: Biodiversity in housing estates | Mayor's Question Time. london.gov.uk. 2019-08-18.
  7. Web site: London Assembly – Membership of Committees/Bodies and Terms of Reference 2019/20 | London Assembly. london.gov.uk. 2019-08-14. 14 August 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190814185249/https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/membership_grid_2019-20.pdf. dead.
  8. Web site: Running out or flooded out? London's water crisis | London Assembly Labour. london.gov.uk. 2019-08-18.
  9. Web site: London 'facing water crisis', report claims. BBC News. 2019-08-18.
  10. Web site: London facing major water crisis, warns new report | London Evening Standard. standard.co.uk. 2019-08-18.