Florence Eshalomi

Born Florence Nosegbe,[6] she is a lifelong Brixton resident and the eldest of three girls from a single parent family. Her mother worked as a school teacher until her illness forced her to retire early. She supported her mother, who suffered from sickle cell anaemia and kidney failure, as her carer.

Eshalomi attended local schools in Lambeth including Durand Primary (now Van Gogh) and St Helen's RC Primary school and Bishop Thomas Grant Secondary School. She completed her A-Levels at St Francis Xavier Sixth Form College in Clapham South. She is the first member of her family to go to university, graduating with a BA Hons in Political & International Studies with Law from Middlesex University. Florence benefited from the EU Funded 'Erasmus Student Exchange' and had the opportunity to study at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Eshalomi started her working life as a 16-year-old at Sainsbury's supermarket, Clapham High Street. She has worked in a variety of campaigning and public affairs roles including in local government as a policy officer, as a regional organiser for the Labour Party during the 2005 general election and as the Public Affairs Manager for the UK's leading race equality think tank, the Runnymede Trust.

Prior to winning her seat in the Assembly, she worked for the PR agency Four Communications as a public affairs account manager.[7]

Eshalomi served as a local councillor from Brixton Hill on Lambeth London Borough Council. She represented the ward along with future Labour MP Steve Reed.

Eshalomi has previously served as a member of the Progress Strategy Board.[8] In 2016, The Times reported that "one of Momentum's most militant factions" planned to picket an event held to support Eshalomi's candidacy for the London Assembly.[9] MPs including Chuka Umunna, Ben Bradshaw and Stella Creasy strongly criticised the picket, and a spokesperson for Momentum stated that the picket was organised by a separate group and that "Momentum are fully behind Flo's campaign."[10] In the 2015 leadership election Eshalomi supported Liz Kendall to become Labour Party leader.[11]

Eshalomi was elected to the London Assembly on 5 May 2016 with a majority of 62,243 over the Conservative Party candidate Robert Flint.[12] She is lead spokesperson for the London Assembly Labour Group on Transport issues, and current Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee.[13]

As an Assembly Member, Eshalomi has campaigned on issues including gang crime[14] and the closure of Kennington Police Station.[15][16]

Eshalomi was selected as Labour candidate for the Vauxhall parliamentary constituency on 27 October 2019, after Kate Hoey, a long-standing MP of 30 years, had announced she would not stand again as Labour's candidate in the constituency. She won the seat with a slightly reduced but still strong Labour majority of 19,612 votes.[17][18]

Eshalomi made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 17 January 2020. She said that "I never imagined that almost five years to the day, as I was literally pacing up and down the maternity ward, looking over the river, trying to coerce my daughter to come out, I would now be sat in this Parliament fighting for funding for our hard-working doctors and nurses" in reference to St Thomas' Hospital in her Vauxhall constituency. Eshalomi also prioritised more funding for the NHS and Police and to focus on tackling youth violence and young women facing sexual exploitation.[19]

On 14th April 2020, Eshalomi was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet and made an Opposition whip.[20]

Eshalomi and her fellow black female MPs have frequently been mistaken for each other since entering parliament, with Eshalomi herself being twice mistaken for black female colleagues in the nine months since her election. Eshalomi said of the misidentifications that "The frequency is worrying and lends itself to a lazy racist view that all black people look the same". Eshalomi was wrongly identified as Taiwo Owatemi by BBC Parliament and a fellow MP ran up to her thinking she was Kate Osamor. During Eshalomi's time on the London Assembly she was mistaken for Kemi Badenoch, then a fellow assembly member. Eshalomi wrote that "All those women I've referenced are individual politicians in their own right...They're women who fought to get elected. So they deserve to be named and not to be confused with other black women. This doesn't happen to some of my white female colleagues, who sometimes have their hair down, sometimes they'll have it back in a ponytail. So why is it, if we as black women change our hair or our appearance, you can't recognise us?".[21]

On 30th December 2020, Eshalomi was one of 37 Labour MPs to have abstained on the Future Trade Agreement between the UK and the EU.[22] She subsequently resigned as an Opposition whip.[23]

Eshalomi is married to Matthew and they have two children, Mia and Malachi, who were both born locally at St Thomas' Hospital.

Eshalomi attends Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Brixton.[24] She is of Nigerian descent.[25]

• Official website
• Florence Eshalomi on Twitter
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• "Florence Eshalomi MP - Assembly Member", London Assembly.
• "Councillor Florence Eshalomi", Lambeth.