Wes Streeting

Wesley Paul William Streeting (born 21 January 1983) is the MP for Ilford North, elected in the 2015 General Election with 44% of the vote (21,463). He held his seat in the 2017 general election with 57.8% of the vote (30,589), up by 13.9%.

Prior to his election, he was Deputy Leader of the London Borough of Redbridge and Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing. He remained a Labour councillor for Aldborough Ward until May 2018.

Streeting's earlier career was in the voluntary sector, most recently as Head of Education at Stonewall, where he led their Education for All campaign to tackle homophobia in schools. He was previously Chief Executive of the Helena Kennedy Foundation, an educational charity that promotes access to higher education to students from further education colleges through bursaries, mentoring and work placements. He is a former National President of the National Union of Students (NUS) in the United Kingdom.

Redbridge council
Wes Streeting was elected as a councillor on Redbridge London Borough Council, for the Chadwell ward, in a July 2010 by-election, holding the seat for Labour by 220 votes, and winning with 31.5% of the vote (a fall of 1.4% for Labour in the ward) on a 25.5% turnout (a fall of 34.5% in turnout). The by-election had been triggered by a previous Labour candidate having been elected two months earlier when he was ineligible to serve on the council. As a result of his election, Streeting gave up his job as a public sector consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), because Redbridge Council was a "current audit client" of the firm, forcing Streeting to choose between keeping his job or forcing a second by-election.

Streeting was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Group in October 2011, 15 months after his election as a Redbridge Councillor. In 2014, he contested the Aldborough ward on Redbridge Council, winning 2,100 votes and defeating Conservative opponent Ruth Clark.

Parliamentary career
In the General Election of 7 May 2015, Wes Streeting was elected as the Member of Parliament for Ilford North. Representing the Labour Party, he overturned a Conservative majority of 5,404 to win by 589 votes. Since being elected Streeting has been elected Honorary President of the British Youth Council by its membership of over 250 organisations.