Steve Reed (politician) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Steve Reed
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Official portrait, 2024
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| Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 5 July 2024 |
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| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Steve Barclay | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament for Streatham and Croydon North |
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| Assumed office 5 July 2024 |
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| Preceded by | Constituency established | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament for Croydon North |
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| In office 29 November 2012 – 30 May 2024 |
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| Preceded by | Malcolm Wicks | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Leader of Lambeth Council | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 24 May 2006 – 29 November 2012 |
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| Preceded by | Peter Truesdale | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Lib Peck | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of Lambeth Council for Brixton Hill |
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| In office 2 May 2002 – 29 November 2012 |
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| Succeeded by | Martin Tiedemann | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
Steven Mark Ward Reed
12 November 1963 St Albans, Hertfordshire, England |
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| Political party | Labour Co-op | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Sheffield (BA, MA) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Steven Mark Ward Reed OBE (born 12 November 1963) is a British politician who has been Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs since July 2024. A member of the Labour and Co-operative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Croydon North from a 2012 by-election until the seat's abolition in 2024.
Reed was Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from September 2023 to July 2024, and Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2020 to 2021 and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice from 2021 to 2023. Prior to his election to Parliament, he was leader of Lambeth London Borough Council from 2006 to 2012.
Early life and career
Reed was born and raised in St Albans, Hertfordshire and attended Verulam School. His family worked at Odhams printing factory in Watford until it closed down in 1983. Around this time, he joined the Labour Party. He went on to study English at Sheffield University. He started work in the educational publishing industry in 1990, and worked for Routledge, Thomson International, the Law Society and Sweet & Maxwell.
Local government career
Reed first stood for the Lambeth London Borough Council in the 1998 election and won the Town Hall ward (now Brixton Hill). In 2002 Labour lost control of Lambeth council to a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition, and Reed was elected leader of the opposition.
After Labour won back control of Lambeth Council in 2006, Reed was appointed the council's leader. At the beginning of his tenure, after Labour took political control of the council, Lambeth was rated as London's worst-run borough, with a one-star rating in the Audit Commission's annual inspection in 2006. By 2009 the council had improved to a three-star rating. At the 2010 election, Labour gained seats from the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, making it the first time that Labour had been re-elected to lead in Lambeth for twenty years.
Reed held a number of significant positions in local government. He was:
- Deputy Leader of Local Government Labour, an association representing Labour councillors nationally;
- Deputy Chairman of the Local Government Association;
- London Councils board member for Children's Services and Employment;
- Chairman of Central London Forward, a lobbying group representing five inner-London boroughs;
- A board member representing London's boroughs on the London Enterprise Partnership;
- Co-chair of the Vauxhall-Nine Elms-Battersea regeneration board;
- Chairman of the London Young People's Education and Skills Board
- Served as a member of the London Board of the Homes and Communities Agency between 2009 and 2011
Reed was named one of the three most influential council leaders in the country by the Local Government Chronicle in 2011 and was the highest-ranked Labour politician in the 2010 Pink List compiled by The Independent on Sunday.
Reed was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to local government.
Parliamentary career
Reed's first attempt to enter Parliament was in Lambeth, contesting the Labour nomination for the Streatham constituency in 2008, on the retirement of Keith Hill. In March of that year, Reed was beaten to the nomination by Chuka Umunna. On 3 November 2012, Reed defeated former Croydon Council leader Val Shawcross by three votes to become the Labour candidate for Croydon North. The by-election followed the death of the former Labour MP for Croydon North Malcolm Wicks, and was won by Reed on 29 November 2012.
In October 2013, Reed was appointed a Shadow Home Office Minister by the Labour leader Ed Miliband.
In the 2015 general election, Reed was re-elected with 33,513 votes (a 62.5% share, up 6.6% from the previous general election in 2010) and a majority of 21,364 (39.9%) with a 62.3% turnout.
On 27 June 2016, Reed resigned as Shadow Minister for Local Government as part of the mass resignation of the Labour Shadow Cabinet against Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour party. He supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election.
In June 2018, Reed attempted to get a bill through Parliament to make hospitals reveal details about how and when they use physical force against patients and provide hospital staff with training about unconscious bias against minority groups such as young black men with mental health problems. Reed referred to the death of his constituent, Olaseni Lewis, aged 23 during use of restraint at Bethlem hospital. A filibuster by Conservative MP Philip Davies prevented the bill succeeding. Reed's bill was passed on 6 July 2018; it requires that police attending mental hospitals to apply restraints must wear body cameras.
In April 2020, Keir Starmer appointed him shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
In the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor.
On 4 September 2023, Keir Starmer appointed Reed as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
He is the Labour candidate for the new constituency of Streatham and Croydon North in the 2024 United Kingdom general election.
Personal life
Reed is gay, and married his partner in July 2022.
