Andrew Boff

Andrew Boff is a British politician and a Conservative member of the London Assembly, elected in the 2008 election. He is a Londonwide member, representing all thirty-two boroughs and the City of London.

Andrew Boff is a supporter of the "Yes to fairer votes" campaign. He was the Conservative representative at a Yes! event in London on 3 May 2011.

Political career

Early career

Active in London politics since the early 1980s, he was elected a councillor in Hillingdon in 1982 and was Leader of the Council between 1990 and 1992.^[1] In 1992, he stepped down to run for Parliament, defending the marginal Hornsey and Wood Green constituency, but he lost the seat to Labour's Barbara Roche.

Boff ran in the safe Labour seat of London South Inner in the 1994 elections to the European Parliament and was placed seventh on the Conservative list in London in the 1999 election. He failed to be elected both times.^[2]

London Assembly

He contested the Conservative nomination for the London mayoral elections in 2000, 2004, and 2008. He came second in 2000, behind Steven Norris,^[1] and came second once again in 2008.

He was placed first on the Conservative top-up list for the London Assembly in 2008, comfortably winning a seat. His term lasts until 2012. He ran for chairman of the Assembly in 2010, with the backing of the 11 Conservative members, but lost to Liberal Democrat Dee Doocey, who received the backing of the 14 other members, including Richard Barnbrook.^[3] After his re-election to the Assembly Andrew was elected as the GLA Conservative Group Leader.

Hackney politics

He has run for office numerous times in Hackney, where he now lives. He received the Conservative nomination for the elections in 2002 and 2006 to elect the Mayor of Hackney, but came second both times. He was the Conservatives' London Assembly candidate for the North East constituency in 2004, but came third, behind the candidates from both Labour and the Liberal Democrats.^[4] He achieved more success being elected to Hackney borough council, winning the supposedly safe Labour seat of Queensbridge in a by-election in 2005, before losing it again in the next year, albeit with a vote count three times greater than that at the previous full election, in 2002.

Boff ran for Mayor of Hackney for a third time in 2010. A booklet containing election statements from every candidate was distributed to every voter in the borough, but excluded Boff, due to the council's confusion over whether the statements he made about the cost of the mayoralty were legally admissible.^[5] By the time they decided that they were, it was too late to print, and the council compounded this by telling voters that enquired that Boff wasn't running.^[6] In the end, Boff fell to third place, behind the Labour incumbent and the Liberal Democrats.

Personal life

He is an information technology consultant and is openly gay.^[1][7] Boff is a libertarian,^[8] and an outspoken proponent of direct democracy, having trumpeted the issue at London mayoral hustings and on ConservativeHome.^[9]

Footnotes