About Stephen Knight

Candidate for the highly marginal South West London Assembly constituency, needing a 1.3% swing to win

Stephen has been an elected councillor for Teddington Ward in Richmond upon Thames since 1998 and currently serves as Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member of Resources. He was Susan Kramer's successful election agent at the 2005 General Election and helped lead the Liberal Democrats to a landslide victory in the 2006 local elections, gaining 21 seats from the Conservatives.

Stephen has since been involved in Richmond's innovative environmental policy of charging owners of gas-guzzlers more for residents parking permits and is currently leading a £32 million project to rebuild a local secondary school. Stephen was named in the "up and coming" section of the London Evening Standard's "London's Most Influential People 2007" supplement and was recently made a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts in recognition of his work in local government addressing environmental and sustainability issues.

Stephen has lived in South West London since the age of 11 and went to local state schools before studying at Oxford and Southampton Universities. At University in Southampton he was elected President of the Students' Union. He later worked for London Councils (formerly Association of London Government) as a political adviser to senior Liberal Democrat councillors in the Capital. He is Chair of Governors of a local Primary School and was a founding Trustee of Richmond Youth Partnership. Stephen has a grown-up step-daughter, Carmen, from his previous marriage and now lives with his partner Jennifer in Teddington.