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Siobhan Benita
Siobhan Benita in 2020
Born
Siobhan Pook

(1971-10-11) 11 October 1971 (age 53)
Wimbledon, London, England
NationalityBritish
EducationUniversity of Warwick
Political partyIndependent (2012–2016, 2020–present)
Liberal Democrats (2016–2020)
Spouse
Vincent Benita
​
(m. 1997)​
Children2

Siobhan Benita (née Pook; born 11 October 1971) is a British former civil servant. She was an independent candidate in the 2012 London mayoral election. She was then the Liberal Democrat candidate in the London mayoral election originally planned for 2020,[1] but after the election was delayed to 2021, she withdrew as the candidate.[2]

Early life and education

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Benita was born Siobhan Pook on 11 October 1971 in Wimbledon, London, and grew up in the borough of Merton.[3] Her Anglo-Indian mother came to London in 1959, and worked as a home help and auxiliary nurse.[4][5] Benita's father is Cornish; he moved to London, working there as a local primary school teacher, after graduating from Loughborough University.[6][4] Both of her parents now live in Cornwall.[7]

Benita studied at the University of Warwick.[5]

Before joining the Liberal Democrats, Benita said she "voted Labour in the past, and that's where my heart lies".[5]

Career

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Benita joined the Department of Transport in 1996, having entered the Civil Service on the Fast Stream graduate programme.[3]

In 2006, after 10 years as a policy adviser on transport, local government and environment issues, she moved to the Cabinet Office where she worked with the then new Cabinet Secretary, Gus O'Donnell, to improve civil service governance, strategy and communications.[3][8] During her time in the Cabinet Office she established Civil Service Live, in partnership with Civil Service World publisher Dods.[9][10] She worked on the Civil Service Awards and "Tabelle", a network for women who work in, or with, the public sector.[9]

In 2009 she joined the Department of Health as head of corporate management.[3] She resigned from the department in October 2011, in part to protest against NHS reforms.[5] This allowed her to stand as an independent candidate in the 2012 London mayoral election.[3]

In 2013 she joined the economics department at the University of Warwick and set up the Warwick Policy Lab. Then, in 2014, Benita became the economics department's chief policy and strategy officer. She stepped down from that role in August 2016 to become the chief strategy officer of the unit set up by the university in 2016 to develop its presence and activity in London.[11]

In politics

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Benita stood as an independent candidate in the 2012 London mayoral election. She came fifth with 3.8% of the vote, within 8,000 votes of fourth-placed Liberal-Democrat candidate Brian Paddick. She indicated at the time that she intended to stay in politics and hoped to run again in the 2016 London mayoral elections, although she eventually decided not to.[12]

In 2016 she joined the Liberal Democrats, shortly after the 2016 European Union referendum claiming it was the "only true pro-remain party".[13][14] In November 2018, she was selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the 2020 London mayoral election.[15] In November 2019, Benita said that money from unused Oyster cards should be used to help fight homelessness.[16] Benita launched her campaign for the 2020 London mayoral election on 13 February 2020. She said she wanted to legalise cannabis in London in a bid to tackle rising levels of knife crime. She stated she would like to see pilots for legal regulated cannabis across London in order to remove power and money from gangs, free up police time to tackle serious crimes, and raise millions of pounds in tax, which could be invested in youth services and support those addicted to harder drugs. She has also pledged to cut violent crime, cut air pollution, declared an aim to reach zero-carbon by 2030, and reopen closed police stations.[17][18]

On 27 July 2020, Benita announced her withdrawal from the Lib Dem mayoral candidacy, saying she was unable to commit to another year of campaigning following the election's postponement to 2021 given the unpaid nature of the role.[2]

In August 2020, Benita left the Liberal Democrats, saying she did not wish to be "associated with current events in the London [mayoral] campaign," after one of the two shortlisted candidates to replace Benita, Geeta Sidhu-Robb, was revealed to have made an antisemitic statement about Labour MP Jack Straw while standing against Straw in the 1997 general election as a Conservative.[19] She subsequently announced her support for the Rejoin EU candidate, Richard Hewison.[20]

During the 2024 London mayoral election, Benita expressed her support for the re-election of incumbent Sadiq Khan (Labour).[21]

Personal life

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Benita married Vincent Benita in 1997, and has two daughters.[22]

References

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  1. ^ "Lib Dems announce London Mayoral candidate". libdems.org.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Lib Dem's Siobhan Benita quits mayor of London race". BBC News. 27 July 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e Ross, Matt"Interview: Siobhan Benita Archived 30 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine", Civil Service World interview, 27 January 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  4. ^ a b "About Siobhan Benita", Official Siobhan Benita website for the 2012 London Mayoral election, Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  5. ^ a b c d Dunt, Ian (May 2012). "Profile: Siobhan Benita". politics.co.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  6. ^ "Profile: Siobhan Benita". BBC News. 12 April 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  7. ^ "Siobhan Benita – Inspirational Woman | Changing People Blog Changing People Blog". 31 May 2012.
  8. ^ Eden, Richard"Civil Service chief Sir Gus O'Donnell goes on the run with glamorous colleague", The Telegraph, 10 July 2011. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  9. ^ a b Marsh, Arun"Leading Questions: Siobhan Benita, London mayoral candidate", The Guardian, 4 January 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  10. ^ Civil Service Live Network, Dods. "About". Civil Service Live Network. Dods. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
  11. ^ Warwick in London "[1]"
  12. ^ BBC News, "London election 2012: Siobhan Benita's 'massive result'"
  13. ^ "Tweet". twitter.com. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  14. ^ "Growing stronger by the day," Ad Lib, issue 29, September 2016, pp. 16-7
  15. ^ "Lib Dems choose London mayoral candidate". BBC News. 22 November 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  16. ^ "Donate money on unused Oyster cards to end homelessness, says mayoral candidate". East London and West Essex Guardian Series. 20 November 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  17. ^ "London mayoral race: Legalise cannabis, says Lib Dem candidate". BBC News. 13 February 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  18. ^ Benita, Siobhan (14 February 2020). "London has a knife crime crisis – as mayor, here's how I'd fix it". The Independent. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  19. ^ Benita, Siobhan [@SiobhanBenita] (13 September 2020). "I wasn't planning to make this public but I really don't want to be associated with current events in the London campaign. I resigned from the @LibDems last month" (Tweet). Retrieved 13 September 2020 – via Twitter.
  20. ^ Benita, Siobhan. "Siobhan Benita on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  21. ^ "Siobhan Benita: I was a Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor, but this is why I now back Sadiq Khan". Evening Standard. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  22. ^ Dominiczak, Peter"Civil servant runs for Mayor to prove that 'women can do this sort of thing'", Civil servant runs for Mayor, 29 November 2011. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
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