Florence Eshalomi

Florence Dauta Eshalomi (née Nosegbe; born 18 September 1980) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, formerly Vauxhall, since 2019. A Member of Labour Co-op, she was Member of the London Assembly (AM) for Lambeth and Southwark from 2016 to 2021. She currently serves as Minister of State in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Early life Born Florence Nosegbe in Birmingham, she is the daughter of Anthony Nosegbe and of Nigerian descent. She is a lifelong Brixton resident and the eldest of three girls from a single parent family.

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

Political career Prior to winning her seat on the London Assembly, she worked for the PR agency Four Communications as a public affairs account manager.

Eshalomi served as a local councillor from Brixton Hill on Lambeth London Borough Council. She represented the ward along with future Labour MP Steve Reed.

Eshalomi has previously served as a member of the Progress Strategy Board. In 2016, The Times reported that "one of Momentum's most militant factions" planned to picket an event held to support Eshalomi's candidacy for the London Assembly. MPs including Chuka Umunna, Ben Bradshaw and Stella Creasy strongly criticised the picket, and a spokesperson for Momentum stated that the picket was organised by a separate group and that "Momentum are fully behind Flo's campaign". In the 2015 leadership election, Eshalomi supported Liz Kendall to become Labour Party leader.

Eshalomi was elected to the London Assembly on 5 May 2016 with a majority of 62,243 over the Conservative Party candidate Robert Flint. She was lead spokesperson for the London Assembly Labour Group on Transport issues, and current Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee.

As an Assembly Member, Eshalomi has campaigned on issues including gang crime and the closure of Kennington Police Station.

Eshalomi was selected as Labour candidate for the Vauxhall parliamentary constituency on 27 October 2019, after Kate Hoey, a long-standing MP of 30 years, had announced she would not stand again as Labour's candidate in the constituency. Eshalomi won the seat with a slightly reduced majority of 19,612 votes.

Eshalomi made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 17 January 2020. She said that "I never imagined that almost five years to the day, as I was literally pacing up and down the maternity ward, looking over the river, trying to coerce my daughter to come out, I would now be sat in this Parliament fighting for funding for our hard-working doctors and nurses" in reference to St Thomas' Hospital in her Vauxhall constituency. Eshalomi also prioritised more funding for the NHS and Police, and to focus on tackling youth violence and young women facing sexual exploitation. On 14 April 2020, Eshalomi was promoted to the opposition front bench as a whip.

Eshalomi and her fellow black female MPs have frequently been mistaken for each other since entering parliament, with Eshalomi herself being twice mistaken for black female colleagues in the nine months since her election. Eshalomi said of the misidentifications that "The frequency is worrying and lends itself to a lazy racist view that all black people look the same". Eshalomi was wrongly identified as Taiwo Owatemi by BBC Parliament and a fellow MP ran up to her thinking she was Kate Osamor. During Eshalomi's time on the London Assembly, she was mistaken for Conservative Kemi Badenoch, then a fellow assembly member. Eshalomi wrote that "All those women I've referenced are individual politicians in their own right...They're women who fought to get elected. So they deserve to be named and not to be confused with other black women. This doesn't happen to some of my white female colleagues, who sometimes have their hair down, sometimes they'll have it back in a ponytail. So why is it, if we as black women change our hair or our appearance, you can't recognise us?"

On 30 December 2020, Eshalomi abstained from voting on the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill, breaking the Labour party's three-line whip. Consequent to her policy dissent, she tendered her resignation from her position as an opposition whip.

In May 2021, Eshalomi returned to the Labour front bench as the Parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Angela Rayner, the Shadow First Secretary of State and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.

In June 2021, a 59-year-old man from Brixton was prosecuted after sending a stream of abusive messages to Eshalomi between December 2020 and February 2021.

In the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Democracy.

In November 2023, Eshalomi abstained on an SNP motion for a King's Speech amendment calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. After the vote, she immediately clarified her support for a humanitarian ceasefire and has called for one in Parliament on several occasions.

Following her re-election to the newly redrawn constituency of Vauxhall and Camberwell Green at the 2024 general election, Eshalomi was elected Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee on 11 September 2024. In this capacity, she has overseen pre-legislative scrutiny regarding regional leasehold reform and community housing legislation.

In July 2026, she was appointed to the new government as Minister of State in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government by Andy Burnham.

Personal life Eshalomi married Matthew in 2014. They have two children, who were born at St Thomas' Hospital. She is a Christian, and attends Our Lady of the Rosary Roman Catholic Church in Brixton.

Electoral history

2024 general election

2019 general election

2016 London Assembly election

2014 Lambeth London Borough Council election

2010 Lambeth London Borough Council election