[go: nahoru, domu]
Jump to content

Andrew Boff

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 100percentrecord (talk | contribs) at 18:08, 8 July 2023 (Adding website URL). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Andrew Boff
AM
Boff in 2018
Leader of the Conservative Party
in the London Assembly
In office
June 2012 – October 2015
Preceded byJames Cleverly
Succeeded byGareth Bacon
Member of the London Assembly
Assumed office
1 May 2008
Personal details
Born (1958-04-14) 14 April 1958 (age 66)
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Domestic partnerGareth Carey
ResidenceBarking Riverside
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionIT consultant
WebsiteAndrew Boff official website

Andrew Boff (born 14 April 1958) is a British politician who has been Chair of the London Assembly since 2023, and previously from 2021 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served a London-wide Assembly Member (AM) since the 2008 election. Boff served as Leader of the Conservatives in the London Assembly from June 2012 to October 2015.

Andrew Boff was a supporter of the "Yes! To fairer votes" campaign in the 2011 UK Alternative Vote referendum. He was the Conservative representative at a "Yes!" event in London on 3 May 2011. Boff has unsuccessfully sought to become the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London on six occasions, most recently failing to gain the nomination for the 2024 election.

Political career

Early career

Active in politics since the 1970s, Boff was a Young Conservative branch founder whilst still at school; in 1976 he proposed the legalisation of cannabis at a Young Conservative national conference. His mother Elsie was already a councillor when he was elected a councillor in Hillingdon in 1982. He later served as Leader of the Council between 1990 and 1992.[1] In 1992, he stepped down to stand for Parliament, defending the marginal Hornsey and Wood Green constituency. He lost the seat to Labour's Barbara Roche with 39.2% of the vote.

Boff stood in the safe Labour seat of London South Inner in the 1994 election to the European Parliament. He was placed seventh on the Conservative list in London in the 1999 European Parliament election. He failed to be elected both times.[2]

London Assembly

Boff became known in London politics after he contested the Conservative nomination for the London mayoral elections in 2000, 2004 and 2008. He came second in 2000 behind Steven Norris.[1] He came second again in 2008. In summer 2018, Boff launched another campaign to be the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London in 2021. He was shortlisted along with Joy Morrissey and fellow London Assembly Member Shaun Bailey. Boff finished once again in second place with 35% of the vote, an increase of 31% on his run for the nomination in 2015 for the 2016 election.

Boff was placed first on the Conservative top-up list for the London Assembly in 2008, comfortably winning a seat. He was re-elected in 2012, 2016 and 2021. He ran for the chairmanship of the assembly in 2010, with the backing of the eleven Conservative members, but lost to Liberal Democrat Dee Doocey, who received the backing of the fourteen other members, including Richard Barnbrook.[3] After his first re-election to the London Assembly, Boff was elected as the GLA Conservative Group Leader. He was succeeded by Gareth Bacon in October 2015.

In September 2015, Boff called for a managed street prostitution zone to be set up in East London in order to protect sex workers from harm.[4]

In 2019, Boff became Chairman of the Confirmation Hearings Committee and the Planning Committee.[5] In May 2021, he was elected Chairman of the London Assembly. In May 2022, he became Deputy Chairman of the London Assembly.

Hackney politics

He has stood for office numerous times in Hackney, where he lived. He received the Conservative nomination for the elections in 2002 and 2006 to elect the Mayor of Hackney, but came second both times. He was the Conservatives' London Assembly candidate for the North East constituency in 2004, but came third, behind the candidates from both Labour and the Liberal Democrats.[6]

He achieved success in Hackney in 2005, when he won the supposedly safe Labour seat of Queensbridge in a council by-election, before losing it at the 2006 Hackney Council election, albeit with a vote tripled from the previous borough election.

Boff stood for Mayor of Hackney for a third time in 2010. A booklet containing election statements from every candidate except him was distributed to every voter in the borough. It excluded Boff owing to the council's confusion over whether the statements he made about the cost of the mayoralty were legally admissible.[7] By the time they decided that they were, it was too late to print, and the council compounded the problem by telling voters who enquired that Boff was not running.[8] In the contest, Boff fell to third place, behind the Labour incumbent and the Liberal Democrats.

Personal life

He is an information technology consultant.[1][9]

Boff is openly gay. In 2005, he was the first person in the United Kingdom to enter a same-sex civil partnership.[10]

Boff is a libertarian,[11] and an outspoken proponent of direct democracy, having prominently publicised the issue at London mayoral hustings and on ConservativeHome.[12]

An atheist and a humanist, Boff is a member of Humanists UK.[13] He helped to launch the Conservative Humanist Association, a Conservative Party ginger group, at an event in London in 2008.[14][15]

He was involved with the successful reinvigoration of Hackney's Broadway Market in the early 2000s. He also produced a free monthly local magazine for the E8 postcode area.

On 10 June 2019, Boff says he ran into a burning tower block in Barking Riverside to help people escape a fire that had broken out.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Andrew Boff: Making an Impression". BBC News. 16 December 1999. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
  2. ^ "London". European Parliament. Archived from the original on 31 March 2008. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
  3. ^ Hill, Dave (13 May 2010). "London Assembly: committees and chairs". The Guardian.
  4. ^ [1][dead link]
  5. ^ "Andrew Boff". London City Hall. 7 May 2015.
  6. ^ "London Assembly results". Guardian Unlimited. 13 May 2010. Archived from the original on 8 April 2008. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
  7. ^ Lydall, Ross (4 May 2010). "Tory falls foul of mayoral bid rules". Evening Standard.
  8. ^ "Bish Bash Boff in Hackney". Private Eye.
  9. ^ Grew, Tony (29 July 2007). "Interview: However he voted against the scrapping of the anti gay clause 28 when a Conservative Councillor in Hillingdon. The Tory who wants to boff Boris". Pink News. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
  10. ^ @LGBTCons (22 September 2018). "We asked each of the three @conservatives candidates for #LondonMayor why our members & #LGBT+ people should suppor…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  11. ^ White, Michael (10 September 2007). "Tory mayoral hustings – live". London: Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
  12. ^ Boff, Andrew (14 August 2006). "Andrew Boff: 'To give London's voters the power to propose binding propositions on the executive or to recall the Mayor.'". ConservativeHome. Retrieved 12 April 2008.
  13. ^ "Minutes of the Annual General Meeting" (PDF). Humanists UK. 14 July 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  14. ^ Boyce, Laurence (16 August 2008). "God & the Tories". Iain Dale's diary. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  15. ^ Marre, Oliver (2 August 2008). "Pendennis". The Guardian.
  16. ^ "'No fire alarms' sounded in Barking flats blaze". Evening Standard. 10 June 2019.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andrew_Boff&oldid=1164302780"