Navin Fakirchand Shah (born September 1946) is a former British Labour Party politician who served as chair of the

London Assembly The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds supermajority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject t ...

between May 2020 and May 2021, and a Member of the London Assembly for Brent and Harrow from

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Background

Shah moved to the United Kingdom in 1973 to study at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. He joined the Labour Party in 1977 and was elected to Harrow London Borough Council as a councillor for Kenton East Ward in 1994. Shah was Leader of Harrow Council from 2004 to 2006, and remained the Harrow Labour Group Leader until June 2008. He was elected as a member of the

at the 2008 assembly elections, taking the constituency seat of Brent and Harrow, beating

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

incumbent

Bob Blackman Robert John Blackman Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), MP (born 26 April 1956) is a British politician who has been the chairman of the 1922 Committee and chair of the Backbench Business Committee since 2024. A member of the Conservative ...

. He was re-elected in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

. He later challenged Blackman for his Harrow East parliamentary seat at the 2017 general election, and was defeated by just 1,757 votes. With the deferral of 2020 London Assembly election he was elected chair of

on 15 May 2020 succeeding Jennette Arnold. Shah was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

2022 Birthday Honours The 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those ...

for political and public service.

References

1946 births Living people Labour Members of the London Assembly Councillors in the London Borough of Harrow Architects from London Alumni of University College London Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People from Ahmedabad British people of Indian descent British people of Gujarati descent London AMs 2008–2012 London AMs 2012–2016 London AMs 2016–2021 {{UK-politician-stub