Nicky Gavron, who has died aged 82, was a leading London politician whose career spanned 50 years from the 1970s. She was the first deputy mayor of London, following a successful career at Haringey council and as chair of the London planning advisory committee (LPAC), and a Labour member of the London assembly for 21 years. She was well known for her powers of persuasion and capacity to get things done.
Gavron stood to be a member of the London assembly in the first Greater London Authority elections in 2000, winning the Enfield and Haringey constituency. On the same day, Ken Livingstone was elected as mayor of London as an independent; Tony Blair, having decided democracy should be restored to London, had drawn the line at the former Greater London council leader being Labour’s candidate. Soon after the election, Livingstone appointed Gavron as his deputy.
