Neil Garratt

Growing up on a council estate in the Midlands, politics felt like something that happened to other people. My dad drove buses and lorries; my grandad was a coal miner. The path to the London Assembly wasn’t obvious, but the values I picked up — hard work, fair dealing, scepticism of people who dodge scrutiny — turned out to be exactly what the job demands.

I moved to Sutton nearly twenty years ago and built a career in IT, specialising in global data networks and project management. That technical background shapes how I approach City Hall: I follow the data, read the footnotes, and ask the questions that the Mayor’s spin machine hopes nobody will think of.

As Chair of the Budget and Performance Committee, I lead the Assembly’s financial scrutiny of the Mayor, Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police, and the wider GLA family. I believe outer London deserves the same attention, investment, and respect as zones one and two.