British politician (born 1985)
Alexandra Louise Rosenfield Phillips (born 9 July 1985) is a British politician. She served as a Green Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 2019 to 2020. She was Mayor of Brighton and Hove from May 2019 to May 2020; the youngest person to hold the office. Phillips was a Brighton and Hove City councillor between 2009 and 2023.
Early life and local political career
Phillips was born on 9 July 1985 in Liverpool, Merseyside, to Roger Phillips and Margaret Rosenfield.[2][3] She is of Jewish heritage.[4] Her father worked as a presenter for BBC Radio Merseyside for 42 years before retiring in 2020.[5] Her younger sister, Ellie Phillips, works as a television presenter and journalist.[6][7]
Brought up in Liverpool, Phillips was initially a Labour Party activist with her mother, joining the party at the age of 16.[8] In 2003 she resigned from Labour and joined the Green Party as a result of the then Labour government's decision to invade Iraq.[9] She holds a bachelor's degree in French Studies from the University of London Institute in Paris and a PGCE from the UCL Institute of Education.[10]
Phillips moved to Brighton in 2008.[11] She was elected to represent the Goldsmid ward on Brighton and Hove City Council in a 2009 by-election,[12] and re-elected in 2011.[13] In subsequent council elections she contested the Regency ward, winning a seat in both 2015 and 2019.[14][15] She became Brighton's youngest mayor in 2019 after being selected for the role by her fellow councillors.[16][17][18] She finished her term as mayor in May 2020.[19] Outside of her council roles, she has worked as the policy lead at the HIV and sexual health charity, Terrence Higgins Trust, and as a French and German language secondary school teacher in Croydon, London, and later Hampshire.[10][17][20] In 2022, Phillips announced that she and her husband were stepping down as councillors ahead of the May 2023 elections.[21]
European Parliament
In the 2014 European parliamentary election, Phillips stood as a candidate in the South East England constituency. She was second on her party's list after Keith Taylor (Green Party MEP since 2010).[22][23] In the election, the Green Party won just one seat in South East England which therefore went to Taylor as their first-placed candidate.[24] Phillips worked as Senior Campaigns Coordinator for Green Party MP Caroline Lucas's successful general election campaigns in 2010 and 2015.[25] She supported the United Kingdom remaining within the European Union (EU) in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.[26]
Phillips contested the 2019 European Parliament election in the South East England constituency. This time she was first on her party's list, Taylor having chosen not to seek re-election.[27] In the same constituency, another candidate called Alexandra Phillips also stood as a candidate but for the Brexit Party.[28] In the election, both were elected as MEPs.[29] In the European Parliament, she was a member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, and part of the delegation to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.[2]
House of Commons bid
Phillips was the Green Party candidate for Brighton Kemptown at the 2019 general election. She finished fourth out of five candidates.[30]
Personal life
Phillips is married to Tom Druitt, a fellow Green Party Brighton and Hove councillor and managing director of The Big Lemon (a bus and coach operator in Brighton). They both hold shares in the company which has a contract with the city council.[31] They have two children.[32]
