Polly Billington

British politician (born 1967)

Polly Billington MP
Official portrait, c. 2018

Member of Parliament for East Thanet
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 July 2024
Preceded by	constituency established
Majority	6,971

Personal details
Born	November 1967 (age 56)
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	University of Sussex (BA)

Polly Billington (born 1967) is a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament for East Thanet since 2024.

Prior to her election she was an environmental campaigner and had worked as a broadcast journalist for the BBC before becoming a special advisor to Ed Miliband. She was the media director for his successful bid in the 2010 Labour leadership election.^[1] In 2016 she founded UK100.^[2]

Education

Billington was educated at the Ursuline High School, Wimbledon, and Sussex University, before taking a postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Central Lancashire in 1993.^[3]

Professional career

Billington was a BBC reporter for the Today programme, News 24, the 'Politics Show' 'Newsbeat and on Radio 1 as the first dedicated Political Reporter for Newsbeat.^[4]

Billington was the Head of Communications and Campaigns at Citizens Advice from Jan 2013 - January 2015, coordinating campaigns on energy, welfare and payday loans, before resigning to fight the highly marginal three-way contest of Thurrock at the general election.^[5]

Billington founded UK100 in 2016,^[2] a network for UK locally elected leaders who have pledged to switch to 100% clean energy by 2050.^[6] She served as the CEO until February 2023 when she was selected as a parliamentary candidate.^[7]

Billington received the Business Green Leader of the Year Award in 2023, for her "inspirational role in establishing UK100 as one of the most respected and important voices on climate policy in the UK".^[8]

Politico Europe reported in May 2023 that Billington had accepted a Senior Adviser role at the PR lobbying firm Hanover Communications - in their election planning team.^[9]

Politics

Billington became a special adviser to Ed Miliband in 2007 when he was working on party policy and election strategy in the Cabinet Office^[10] and according to The Daily Telegraph she was the 59th most influential person on the UK left in 2011.^[11]

She was the media director for Ed Miliband's successful Labour leadership bid.^[12]

Billington sought to become a parliamentary candidate in February 2010, when she was shortlisted for the safe Labour seat of North Tyneside.

In November 2011, Billington launched another bid to be selected as a Labour MP, this time in Thurrock,^[13] a marginal seat. She was one of 15 Labour candidates each given financial support of £10,000 by Lord Matthew Oakeshott in January 2015.^[14] The tight three-way contest resulted in a Tory hold by 536 votes over Billington with UKIP coming third.^[15]

Billington worked on Sadiq Khan's campaign to be selected as Labour's mayoral candidate for London, leading on communications.^[16] She was one of two Labour Party councillors elected to De Beauvoir ward in the 2018 Hackney London Borough Council election, with 1,448 votes.^[17] She was reelected in 2022, with 1,400 votes.^[18]

Billington has served as an Executive Member of SERA, Labour's Environment Campaign^[19] and is on the advisory group of Labour Climate and Environment Forum.^[20]

On 24 February 2023 she was selected by local party members as the parliamentary candidate for East Thanet at the 2024 general election.^[21] She was elected in the general election on 4 July 2024.^[22]

She is LGBT+ and received support from The Chris Smith List.^[23]

References

^ "Channel Four, Who Knows Who". Retrieved 21 February 2011.
^ ^a ^b "UK100". Retrieved 9 February 2021.
^ "University of Central Lancashire, Graduate returns for the Newsbeat challenge". Retrieved 21 February 2011.
^ "MEDIA: Billington on political form at Radio 1". www.prweek.com. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
^ "Citizen Advice hires Top Labour advisor Polly Billington". Retrieved 27 February 2013.
^ "UK100 members". Retrieved 9 February 2021.
^ "Labour's Polly Billington selected to fight for current South Thanet seat in next General Election". 27 February 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
^ "UK Green Business Awards: And the winner is..." 30 June 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
^ "London Influence: Hanover's Labour grab — Open government latest — Meet Ridgeway". POLITICO. 25 May 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
^ "Civil Service Live Network". Retrieved 21 February 2011.
^ "The Top 100 Most Influential People on the Left 2011: 51–75". Retrieved 21 February 2011.
^ "Channel Four, Who Knows Who". Retrieved 21 February 2011.
^ "Polly Billington's Bid For Thurrock – An Escape From Ed Strategy?". 14 October 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
^ "Former Lib Dem Lord Oakeshott donates £300,000 to Labour candidates". New Statesman. 21 January 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
^ "Election results for Thurrock, 7 May 2015". democracy.thurrock.gov.uk. 7 May 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
^ "Who's who on Team Sadiq". 22 May 2015.
^ "Borough councillors election 2018". hackney.gov.uk. Hackney Council. 4 May 2018. Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
^ "Council election results". hackney.gov.uk. Hackney Council. 6 May 2022.
^ "SERA's 2016/17 Executive Committee". SERA - Labour's Environment Campaign. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
^ "LCEF who we are".
^ Neame, Katie (27 February 2023). "Two more local Labour Parties select their next parliamentary candidates". LabourList | Latest UK Labour Party news, analysis and comment. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
^ Bowles, Millie (4 July 2024). "East Thanet general election full results". Retrieved 5 July 2024.
^ "The Chris Smith List". LGBT+ Labour. Retrieved 6 July 2024.