Political Career
He was a council member in the London Borough of Brent from 1986 to 2010, representing Preston Ward. Cllr Blackman was the leader of the Conservative group on the council from 1990 to 2010, having been council leader between 1991 and 1996. He became Council Leader after a number of Labour councillors defected to the Conservative Group. He stood as a parliamentary candidate for Brent South at the 1992 election, for Bedford at the 1997 election, and for Brent North at the 2005 election.
He was elected as a member of the London Assembly at the 2004 assembly elections, taking the constituency seat of Brent and Harrow, beating Toby Harris who had beaten him for the seat at the 2000 elections. He was elected Conservative Group Whip on the London Assembly.
In the 2008 elections, Blackman lost his seat back to the Labour candidate, Navin Shah by a slim margin. In 2012, Navin managed to secure the seat by almost 30,000 votes.
From June 2006 to May 2010, he was also been Deputy Leader of Brent Council, the Conservatives having formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
In the General Election of May 2010 Blackman took the Harrow East constituency from Labour's Tony McNulty, a former immigration minister, who had been accused of over-claiming his parliamentary expenses.
In 2010 he was appointed as a member to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.
In October 2011, whilst defending their right to protest peacefully, Bob Blackman called for benefits to be stripped from Occupy London protesters outside St Paul's.
Read more about this topic: Bob Blackman (politician)
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