About Stephen Knight

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. At the 2008 London Assembly election he was the Liberal Democrat candidate for the South West London constituency.

Stephen has been involved in Richmond's innovative environmental policy of charging owners of gas-guzzlers more for car parking and is leading the 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 is the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on, and Vice Chair of, the London Councils Grants Committee, which distributes around £28 million a year to London's voluntary sector.

Stephen has lived in Richmond upon Thames 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 poltical 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.