BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRO - BRITISH " JAMES SPENCER CLEVERLY " IS A MEMBER OF THE LONDON ASSEMBLY AND CHAIRMAN OF THE LONDON FIRE AND EMERGENCY PLANNING AUTHORITY : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

                                       BLACK                SOCIAL             HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               James Spencer Cleverly  born 4 September 1969  is member of the London Assembly part of the Greater London Authority and is the Chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. He was first elected for the Bexley and Bromley constituency in May 2008 as a candidate of the Conservative Party with a majority of 75,237, by far the largest margin in any of the fourteen constituencies. He was re-elected in 2012 with a majority.

History

James Cleverly was born in Lewisham Hospital, his father is British and his mother from Sierra Leone. He attended Riverston School and Colfe's School, both in Lee, South East London and after a short time in the Army gained a degree at Thames Valley University (now known as the University of West London).

Before being elected he worked in the magazine and web publishing industry, he is the author of a long standing and well known blog. He is a Major in the Territorial Army and has been awarded the Territorial Decoration for long service.

Elections

He had previously stood unsuccessfully in a number of elections the London Borough of Lewisham, these included the borough council elections 2002, a borough council by-election in 2003, for the Lewisham East seat for the UK Parliament in the 2005 general election and as the Conservative candidate for the directly elected mayor of Lewisham in 2006.

In March 2007 he was selected as the candidate for the Bexley and Bromley constituency of the London Assembly in a very tightly fought selection contest. The London Assembly election was held on 1 May with the count and declaration on the 2nd, he received 105,162 votes (52.6% of the vote) and majority of 75,237.

In November 2010 James was reselected to be the Conservative candidate for Bexley and Bromley in the 2012 GLA elections going on to win the seat with 88,482 votes (once again 52.6% of the votes) and a majority of 47,768.

Political

In January 2009 James was appointed as the Mayor of London's Youth Ambassador a newly created role which was seen as being a replacement post for the Deputy Mayor for Young People, a post left vacant after the resignation of Ray Lewis. The creation of the role caused some controversy as it was not filled by a mayoral appointment but by a member of the assembly whose formal role is to scrutinise the Mayor. The decision was defended because of the precedent set by the appointment of Kit Malt house as Deputy Mayor for Policing.

In February 2010 James was appointed as the Chairman of the London Waste and Recycling Board replacing Boris Johnson who stood down from the role at that point. After the defeat of Brian Coleman at the 2012 London elections was appointed to the Chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.