Florence Eshalomi is the Labour (Co-op) MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, having first been elected for the predecessor seat of Vauxhall at the 2019 general election.

She currently serves as chair of the House of Commons housing, communities and local government committee.

In the 2024 general election for the new Vauxhall and Camberwell Green constituency, Eshalomi received 21,528 votes (57.4%). The Green Party candidate received 6,416 votes (17.1%), and the Liberal Democrat candidate secured 4,549 votes (12.1%). Eshalomi was duly elected with a majority of 15,112.

The Vauxhall and Camberwell Green constituency covers inner South London areas within the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, including Vauxhall, Stockwell, Oval, Kennington, Camberwell Green, and Newington.

The seat was created for the 2024 election, merging most of the historically safe Labour Vauxhall constituency with parts of other safe Labour seats. The former Vauxhall constituency recorded one of the UK’s highest Remain votes (77.6%) in the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union (EU).

Eshalomi succeeded Kate Hoey, who had represented Vauxhall as a Labour MP since 1989, but did not stand in 2019. Hoey, an outspoken proponent of Brexit who campaigned alongside Nigel Farage, left the Labour Party in 2019. She was nominated for a life peerage in the House of Lords in then prime minister Boris Johnson’s 2019 Dissolution Honours.

Political Career

Eshalomi currently serves as minister of state in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. She was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Previously, Eshalomi chaired the influential housing, communities and local government committee (2024-2026) – the committee responsible for scrutinising the policy, spending, and administration of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and its associated public bodies. By virtue of this role, Eshalomi sat on the liaison committee – the “super committee” composed of the cross-party chairs of all the other commons select committees.

Eshalomi was appointed as a trade envoy to Nigeria in January 2025. Appointed by the trade secretary, envoys are tasked with boosting British exports and attracting foreign investment. An envoy’s duties typically involve leading trade delegations, lobbying host governments on market access issues, and building relationships with overseas businesses. In addition, Eshalomi was appointed as the trade envoy to Ghana in January 2026.

Prior to the 2024 general election, which saw Labour returned to power after 14 years in opposition, Eshalomi served as shadow minister for democracy (within Labour’s levelling up, housing, communities and local government team) from September 2023 to May 2024, and shadow Cabinet Office minister from July 2022 to September 2023.

Eshalomi was briefly an opposition whip from April to December 2020 – when she resigned, alongside fellow Labour frontbenchers Helen Hayes and Tonia Antoniazzi, after defying leader Keir Starmer’s order to vote for Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit trade deal. Starmer, the newly elected Labour leader, argued that while the trade deal was “thin” and flawed, the only alternative at that late stage was a “no-deal” exit. To enforce the leadership’s position, a three-line whip was imposed. Eshalomi abstained over the bill. One Labour MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, voted against the bill.

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Eshalomi also served as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the deputy leader of the Labour Party, Angela Rayner, from May 2021 to July 2022. A PPS acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs.

Eshalomi was a member of the human rights (joint committee) from June 2021 to November 2022, the housing, communities and local government committee from February 2021 to November 2022, and the committee on the future relationship with the European Union from March 2020 to January 2021.

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Eshalomi is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development), HIV/Aids and sexual health, London, and Portugal.

In June 2020, Eshalomi spoke out about her experience of being mistaken for black female colleagues in parliament. In a letter to her constituents, she said the issue of misidentification “lends itself to a lazy racist view that all black people look the same.”

Eshalomi wrote: “On the first occasion I was coming through central lobby, and an MP ran up to me and just broke into conversation. Then she stopped herself because she realised I wasn’t Kate. She thought I was Kate Osamor – she was so embarrassed she just literally ran away again.

“On the second occasion I was in the chamber… I was one of the last members to speak in the debate that day, and when I stood up to speak the caption had me down as Taiwo Owatemi, the MP for Coventry North West.”

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Eshalomi delivered her maiden speech on 16 January 2020, during a debate on health and social care. In it, she said: “I got involved in politics to give a voice to people who feel that politics is not for them or that politics does not matter. I have spent a large part of my career working with young people, including the young people who society is quick to demonise and stereotype.

“Last Tuesday, I was one of the first people on the scene following a stabbing incident that took place just over the border of my constituency. I made the frantic phone call to the emergency services, as I and two other members of the public tried to stem the flow of blood from the young boy who had been stabbed…

“We cannot allow ourselves to become desensitised to the issue of knife crime. Young people in my constituency are being groomed for violence, and there has been an increase in fatal stabbings over recent years.”

Eshalomi was selected as the Labour candidate for her Vauxhall and Camberwell Green after defeating Jeremy Corbyn’s former political secretary Katy Clark – described as the “Momentum favourite”.

Before entering parliament, Eshalomi was the London assembly member (AM) for Lambeth and Southwark from May 2016 to May 2021, serving as the Labour group’s lead spokesperson on transport and chair of the assembly’s transport committee.

During her time on the London Assembly, Eshalomi has said she was mistaken for Kemi Badenoch, then a fellow member of the assembly.

​​Badenoch once joked that she needed to keep her glasses on 24/7 so people could tell the difference.

She was also a councillor for the Brixton Hill ward on Lambeth Council from May 2006 to May 2018.

She worked for the Labour Party during the 2005 general election.

Political Views

Eshalomi was a prominent supporter of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and protests.

Speaking in the House of Commons in June 2020, responding to a statement from then-home secretary Priti Patel, Eshalomi called on the government to recognise “structural inequality, discrimination and racism in our country.”

She condemned “vandalism and violence” – but called on “Patel to actually understand the anger and frustration felt by so many people”.

She added: “My son turned three yesterday. I do not want to have to wait until he is a teenager before we see changes in this country. Will the home secretary and the government act now? Black lives matter, and we need to see the government doing something about that.”

Patel responded that “when it comes to racism, sexism, tolerance or social justice, I will not take lectures from the other side of the House” – raising abuse that she has been subjected to.

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In an interview with the New Statesman, published August 2020, Eshalomi voiced her wish that the Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t “fizzle out”.

She dismissed the idea that BLM was a left- or right-wing cause. “It’s a human issue”, she commented. The people who insist that “all lives matter” are “missing the point…You can’t have a situation where the majority of businesses affected by Covid-19 are black- and ethnic minority-owned and not think something is wrong.”

Eshalomi appeared to criticise Keir Starmer as Labour leader after he described BLM protests as a “defining moment”.

Eshalomi posted to Twitter (now X): “For the year 12 students I spoke to last Friday at Lilian Baylis School, where a number of the boys (and one girl) mentioned they had been stopped and searched, Black Lives Matter isn’t a moment.

“[The] choice of words in the interview was wrong. I will continue to relay constituents’ views to Keir.”

Leadership elections and loyalty

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Eshalomi was one of 117 Labour MPs who nominated Lucy Powell for the party’s deputy leadership in September 2025. The election followed the resignation of Angela Rayner, who stepped down as deputy prime minister and deputy party leader after an investigation into her tax affairs. It marked the first time since 2007 that Labour had held a deputy leadership contest while in government.

Powell, the former leader of the House of Commons, was seen as a candidate representing the party’s “soft left”; she was support by leading soft left figures including Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham. She secured 117 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), above the 80 required, and went on to win the election – defeating Bridget Phillipson with 54.3% of the vote.

Labour leadership 2020: Eshalomi was one of 82 Labour MPs who nominated Keir Starmer for the party’s leadership in early 2020. The election was triggered by the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn following the party’s defeat in the 2019 general election, which resulted in Labour’s fewest seats in the House of Commons since 1935.

Starmer’s 82 nominations were the highest of any candidate. The shadow Brexit secretary won a decisive victory in the first round with 56.2% of the vote, defeating Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy.

In the 2015 leadership contest, Eshalomi endorsed Liz Kendall’s candidacy as a so-called “councillor for Kenadall”.

Factional identity and party tradition

Eshalomi previously served as a member of the Progress Strategy Board. A 2021 BrixtonBuzz report suggested Eshalomi hails from the right of the Labour Party due to her association with Progress/Progressive Britain – a political organisation generally if reductively regarded as “Blairite”.

Founded in 1996, Progress established itself as the dominant faction of the party’s “modernising” or “Blairite” wing, championing the pro-market, centrist social democracy of the New Labour era under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. For many years, it acted as a key network and ideas factory for this tradition, organising events, publishing analysis, and supporting parliamentary candidates who shared its political outlook, often positioning itself against the party’s more left-wing factions.

In 2016, activists in Lambeth Momentum, a local branch of the grassroots network of Jeremy Corbyn supporters, planned to picket an event held to support Eshalomi’s candidacy for the London Assembly. The “pizza and politics” event was hosted by Labour MPs Heidi Alexander and Neil Coyle.

According to a Times, treasurer of Lambeth Momentum Stuart King told supporters: “May I remind you all that we are planning to picket the fundraiser of the Progress Blairite Greater London Authority candidate Florence Eshalomi.”

The planned action was criticised by serving Labour MPs, including Coyle, Wes Streeting, Chuka Umunna, Ben Bradshaw and Stella Creasy.

Umunna accused Momentum members of doing the Conservative Party’s “dirty work” for them.

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A spokesperson for Momentum disavowed the planned picket.

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Trade Union Group: Eshalomi is a member of the Trade Union Group of Labour MPs. This long-standing group, founded in 1926, serves as a link between the Labour party and the trade union movement, aiming to ensure that the voices of working people and their unions are represented in parliament.

Electoral reform

Fair elections APPG: Eshalomi is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for fair elections – a cross-party group of MPs and peers that campaigns for electoral reform. The group’s stated aims include replacing the first past the post (FPTP) voting system with a form of proportional representation, eliminating “dark money” and “undemocratic influence” from politics, and countering disinformation.

Electoral reform amendment: In May 2026, Eshalomi was one of over 70 Labour MPs who signed an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill, calling on the government to establish a “national commission on electoral reform”. Tabled by Alex Sobel as chair of the fair elections APPG, the amendment aimed to force a rethink of the first past the post voting system.

At the time, Sobel described FPTP as “one of the biggest examples of a broken status quo in UK politics.” He invited colleagues to join this “common sense call to take a fresh look at how parliament is elected in modern Britain.”

Proportional representation bill: In December 2024, Eshalomi voted in favour of the Elections (Proportional Representation) Bill – introduced by Liberal Democrat frontbencher Sarah Olney under the 10-minute rule procedure. The bill sought to “introduce a system of proportional representation for parliamentary elections and for local government elections in England”.

A total of 138 MPs supported the bill – with 136 opposed. Notably, 59 Labour MPs backed Olney’s bill.

Introducing the bill, Olney told the House: “First past the post is a broken and unfair system. This summer, the Labour party won a landslide election victory, securing 63% of seats in the House of Commons in return for just 34% of the vote.

“The system leaves millions of voices unheard and creates a divisive, adversarial political climate where collaboration is discouraged and accountability is often sidestepped.”

Welfare

Welfare ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Eshalomi was one of the over 120 Labour MPs to sign the reasoned amendment to the government’s flagship welfare bill which aimed to reject the proposed legislation.

The amendment, in the name of senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, objected to the fact that the bill had not been subject to a “formal consultation with disabled people” and that “250,000 people will be pushed into poverty” as a result of it, according to a government impact assessment.

The motion also called on the government to wait for the publication of the review into the Personal Independence Payment (Pip), helmed by minister Sir Stephen Timms, and the independent review, conducted by Sir Charlie Mayfield, into how the employment of disabled people could be boosted.

Welfare vote (July 2025): Eshalomi voted in favour of the government’s flagship welfare bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Assisted dying

Eshalomi voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Speaking in opposition to the bill during its second reading debate, Eshalomi said the proposed legislation did not take account of “health inequalities [that] are wide and persistent”.

She told the House of Commons: “We know that black and minority ethnic disabled people have far worse health outcomes than the national average. I saw that at first hand when caring for my mother, who suffered with sickle cell anaemia.

“As a teenager, I would be by her side when she was in excruciating pain, explaining to a doctor who would not believe her when she told him that she needed life-saving medication. Sadly, that is still the reality today.”

Speaking in May 2025, again in the commons, Eshalomi criticised prominent campaigner Esther Rantzen – who argued many are fighting against the changes to the law because of secret religious views.

She said it was “frankly insulting to disabled people, hardworking professionals up and down the country who have raised many valid concerns about this bill, to have it dismissed as religious beliefs”.

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Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Eshalomi voted in favour of a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Social media ban: In January 2026, Eshalomi was one of over 60 Labour MPs to sign a letter to the prime minister calling for the introduction of an Australia-style ban on social media access for children under the age of 16. Organised by Plymouth Moor View MP Fred Thomas, the initiative brought together a cross-factional coalition of backbenchers – spanning the Socialist Campaign Group, Tribune Group and Blue Labour – to demand action.

The letter called on Keir Starmer to “show leadership” by introducing a minimum age for social media access “to protect young people from the consequences of unregulated, addictive social media platforms”.

It stated: “We are all strong supporters of technology, and of this Labour government’s ambition to use tech to improve lives. But successive governments have done far too little to protect young people from the consequences of unregulated, addictive social media platforms.”

Palestine

LFPME: Eshalomi has been listed as a member of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East (LFPME). The organisation’s stated aim is to promote peace and justice in the region through the application of international law and respect for human rights.

Palestinian recognition letter (July 2025): In July 2025, Eshalomi was among the over 254 MPs to sign a cross-party letter calling for the government to immediately recognise the state of Palestine. The letter called on the prime minister and foreign secretary to recognise Palestine at the UN Conference then taking place in New York.

Before Politics

Born in Birmingham on 18 September 1980, Eshalomi grew up in Brixton, South London, and is of Nigerian descent. As a child she acted as a carer for her mother, who suffered from Sickle Cell Anaemia and renal failure.

Eshalomi started her working life as a 16-year-old at Sainsbury’s supermarket, Clapham High Street.

She attended local schools in Lambeth before completing A-Levels at St Francis Xavier Sixth Form College. She was the first member of her family to attend university, graduating from Middlesex with a degree in political and international studies with law.

Eshalomi also studied for a semester at Utrecht University through the Erasmus programme. “It’s an opportunity I’m eternally grateful for”, she told the New Statesman in 2020. “It’s one that my mother, a single parent, would never have been able to afford. EU funding made that entire experience possible.”

Before her election to the London Assembly, she worked as a Public Affairs Manager for the Runnymede Trust, the race equality think tank. She also worked as a regional organiser for the Labour Party and held public affairs roles in local government and for the PR agency Four Communications.

Personal Life

Eshalomi is married and has two children. A lifelong resident of Brixton, she is of Nigerian and Brazilian heritage. She is a Christian.

The eldest of three girls from a single parent family, Eshalomi was the first member of her family to go to university. Her mother worked as a school teacher until her illness forced her to retire early. Eshalomi supported her mother as a carer while at school.

In her 2019 maiden speech, Eshalomi said: “As a young girl, I would watch my mother in pain going through a sickle crisis, but somehow she would still find the strength to help my sisters and me get ready for school and support us with our homework.

“I know the real value of the NHS. Without the amazing care of the haematology and renal team at King’s College Hospital, and my mother’s faith in God, she would not have lived to the age of 60.”

Trivia

Eshalomi is reportedly friends with Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party. Both MPs share Nigerian heritage and first met serving together on the London Assembly.

Commenting on Badenoch’s political struggles during the early stages of her leadership, Eshalomi advised her friend to “stay off Twitter”.

She told The House magazine: “She’s struggled a bit landing her narrative and how she wants to govern. Equally I’d say that the media is always quite harsh when you’re a woman in politics, especially for a leader. I hope that she’s getting the support from her fellow MPs.”

Eshalomi congratulated Badenoch after she won election as Conservative leader in November 2024 “from one British Nigerian MP to another”.

She added: “Your dad would be proud.”

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Eshalomi also defended Badenoch after she appeared to face criticism, in the media and among Conservatives, for taking a holiday with her family during her party’s 2024 leadership election.

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