Political Activity
As a student at Imperial he became president of its students' union. In 1978 he was elected president of the National Union of Students as a candidate for the Broad Left.
Phillips was active in the voluntary sector, serving as chair of the Runnymede Trust, a think-tank promoting ethnic equality, from 1993 to 1998, and as a commissioner for a number of other charities. He also served as chair of the London Arts Board. His long-standing friendship with Peter Mandelson (who worked with Phillips at LWT and was best man at his wedding to Asha Bhownagary) brought him close to the New Labour project and he became friends with Tony Blair. Phillips joined the Labour Party in London in 1996. He was awarded an OBE in 1999 for services to broadcasting. Later in 1999, Phillips ran to be Labour's candidate for Mayor of London.
Phillips was initially reported to be Tony Blair's preferred choice for the role, and when Blair called for the party to swiftly unite behind one candidate, Ken Livingstone, a left-winger and favourite to win the nomination, offered to form a joint ticket with Phillips as his running mate. Phillips described Livingstone's offer as "patronising" in a response that was seen as an accusation of racism, though Phillips later denied this. Following this and other controversies, including his decision to send his children to a private school, Phillips withdrew from the race a few months later and was not on the final shortlist of candidates. Instead, he accepted an offer to be running mate to Frank Dobson.
Although Dobson won the nomination, his candidature was harmed by the perception that the contest was "fixed" by the use of an electoral college. Livingstone ran as an independent and won. The Labour Party designated Phillips as a member of the London Assembly on 4 May 2000 as one of its 'top-up' candidates. Phillips served as chair of the Assembly until February 2003, before resigning his seat to take up his appointment at the Commission for Racial Equality.
Read more about this topic: Trevor Phillips
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