Steve Reed

Born in St Albans, Steve Reed joined the Labour Party as a teenager and read English at the University of Sheffield. After graduating, he embarked on an 18-year career in educational publishing. His political career began in 1998 when he was elected as a councillor for the Town Hall ward on Lambeth council. When Labour lost control of the council in 2002, Reed became leader of the opposition, and in 2006 – when the party took back control – he became the council’s leader. During this time, he also served as deputy leader of Local Government Labour and deputy chairman of the Local Government Association in addition to several other posts. He was awarded an OBE in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to local government. Ahead of the 2012 Croydon North by-election, Reed was selected as the Labour candidate and successfully held the seat for the party. During his first term in Parliament, he sat on the Public Administration Committee and served as a shadow home office minister under Ed Miliband. Following the 2015 general election, Reed was appointed shadow communities minister – he resigned from this post June 2016 in order to support Owen Smith in the Labour leadership election. After Corbyn was re-elected as Labour leader, Reed became shadow minister for civil society – a post he held until June 2019 when he became shadow minister for children and families. In April 2020, Kier Starmer appointed Reed as shadow secretary of state for communities and local government.