Keith Hill (politician)

Keith Hill (politician)

Trevor Keith Hill (born 28 July 1943, Leicester) is a politician in the United Kingdom who served in a variety of Government roles as a Whip and a junior minister.

He was Labour Member of Parliament for Streatham, from 1992 to 2010, having announced on 23 May 2007 that he would be standing down as an MP at the next general election. He was offered a knighthood in the 2010 Dissolution Honours, but declined the honour saying he would find the "whole idea a little embarrassing and too much for me".

Hill was educated at City Boys' Grammar School in Leicester, from where he won a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He completed a Diploma in Education at University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.

He was then a politics lecturer, firstly in the University of Leicester and at the University of Strathclyde from 1969–1973. He worked as a research officer for the Labour Party's International Department from 1974–1976 before becoming a political officer for the National Union of Railwaymen, subsequently amalgamated into the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT). In the 1979 general election he stood unsuccessfully as Labour Candidate in Blaby.

In the 1992 election, Hill outperformed Labour's national performance by being the first Labour MP elected for the Streatham constituency. He defeated the incumbent Conservative MP Sir William Shelton by a convincing margin. This partly reflected changing demographics in the constituency, which includes a large swathe of Brixton. However, it also reflected Hill's assiduous personal campaign in the years before the election, which contrasted favourably with Shelton's neglect of his constituency duties.

Following his election as an MP, he served on the Select Committee for Transport from 1992 to 1997. His first Government appointment was as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Hilary Armstrong in 1997. He became an Assistant Government Whip from 1998 to 1999.

Keith Hill's ministerial career started when he was appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary for Transport (as well as Minister for London) at the then Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) in 1999. During his time at DETR, he was responsible for local transport and transport in London.

As Minister for London, Keith Hill was closely involved in preparing the way for London mayoral elections. This was a task that he took to with clear relish - regional television viewers saw Mr Hill doing a rap in the middle of Trafalgar Square with a baseball hat on back to front to try to encourage young Londoners to vote in the elections.

In the ministerial appointments following the 2001 election, Keith Hill moved to the position of Deputy Chief Whip. In the 13 June 2003 reshuffle, Hill was promoted to Minister of State rank and joined the Privy Council. He served as Minister for Housing and Planning at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister until the 2005 General Election. During this period he had lead responsibility for housing, planning, the Thames Gateway, urban policy and liveability issues, and was Minister for London and the Dome. In the reshuffle following the 2005 general election, Keith Hill was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Tony Blair MP. He returned to the backbenches on Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister in June 2007.

Since leaving parliament he has become the chair of Lambeth Living, Lambeth Council's ALMO (Arm's Length Management Organisation) which manages the bulk of Lambeth's social housing.