CANDIDATE CV – Contact Details

Parliamentary and Assembly Selection

Name – Last Cannon Name – First Sophia Membership Number L0066070 Current home constituency Dulwich and West Norwood Trade Union Unite and Unison Current Occupation Barrister at Law Media Commentator Phone – Day O2087612232 Phone – Eve 07855 728 601 Phone – Mob O2087612232 Email 1 [email protected] Twitter @sophia4sheffs Email 2 [email protected] Business Address SORBY HOUSE, 42 SPITAL HILL, SHEFFIELD, S YORKSHIRE, S4 7LG Residential Address 46 TOWNEND RD SHEFFIELD Insert here a maximum 150 Post Code S35 9YY word potted biography as you would like it to appear in the local newspaper when it announces the candidates for this election:

Sophia Cannon is a local lass, promoting Labour values in the media as a political campaigner. Her engineer grandad had rooms in Burngreave in the1940’s. Her dad is still a welder in Worksop. She went to Tuxford Comprehensive. However, she spent time in care and placed in Grantham, to escape the local issues, girls in care faced. She was awarded scholarships at Alevels at Grantham Girl’s Grammar School and her law degrees, then called to the Bar in 2001. Sophia has practiced as a barrister, for 13 years, in local chambers and then was invited to join Tooks Chambers, of Michael Mansfield QC who fought so strongly for the Orgreave Miners defending the rights of local working people against the state. Due to her campaigning zeal, and national profile, Sophia appears regularly on BBC and Sky News as a political commentator and now writes for Labour Left.

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Date form completed 5th September 2014

Parliamentary and Assembly Selection CANDIDATE CV – Personal Details Please complete the following sections to provide information about your skills and experience: Length of Labour Party Membership < than 1 year X 1-5 years 6-10 years 11-20 years > 20 years

Length of Trade Union Membership < than 1 year X 1-5 years 6-10 years 11-20 years > 20 years

Experience of public office or candidature Elected Town or parish District or County Unitary National or Europe Candidat Town or parish District or County Unitary National or Europe e And now in your own words please describe: Why you should be the candidate for the seat in question.

Labour has to win in 2015.

Accordingly, here, in Sheffield, we will need to fight for every vote, first from the far right; second from apathy itself. There’s no such thing as a safe seat in 2015. David Blunkett’s legacy will never forgotten placing Hillsborough and now Brightside on the Westminster map, there are new challenges, however.

Whether from the far-Right, who have encroached into Sheffield; then nationally, with the slick Tory media campaign to undermine the working class through to devaluing and demoralising the public sector. Sheffield’s budget has not just been cut, it’s been disseminated we need our fair share reinstated. We must also stand firm in ensuring our communities integrate and assimilate - the real immigration debate in Hillsborough and Brightside, today.

Only by working across the whole constituency, with core values can the David’s vision of community cohesion repel the far right message, and the Tory cuts. Only by working across the whole media can Sheffield raise its profile - firstly, we need to have a physical Labour Party Office in Sheffield, to coordinate the response in South Yorkshire and for business to huddle together, feeling confident and comfortable

with their Labour representation. Only through the innovation and resilience from local businesses, large and small, have the cuts not had a greater impact in the city.

I joined the Labour Party, first in 2004, as a human rights barrister at Tooks Court Chambers - a campaigning set, to protect and challenge the establishment. My own upbringing meant that I was committed to championing families in crisis from illness, from unemployment and lack of opportunity. I was the first generation to go to university and to gain professional qualifications.

Campaigning in both 2005 and 2010 in Bethnal Green, for Baroness Oona King then, Rushanara Ali. We used careful lessons and methods to add light and remove heat from inter-community tensions and to approach all members of the community as equals.

I left public life to be a full-time single mother of twins, thinking the fight had been won, just as the Tory-led Coalition policies took hold and impacting upon women and mothers the hardest. I could not believe the accounts of the everyday struggles of the Tory cuts that I heard. I then decided, whilst on maternity leave, to document the decline: the decline in opportunity, the decline in jobs, the decline in the NHS- and that was just with the mothers and baby group I attended. I started my own grassroots campaigning blog and social media campaign called “Undercovermutha” which was picked up by BBC, Channel 4 and Sky. Here, real mothers, with real political and social issues offered to each other, support online. These stories are now being turned into books, “Wifey” and “Skirt”.

Being an effective community organiser one thing, you need to understand public relations, your community and then be able to successfully push the message home, right into Parliament and to the Westminster media to effect change.

Accordingly, my candidacy represents:

-innovative campaign techniques by way of social media.

-persuasive national exposure for Sheffield through access and proven credibility in the media.

-credible, BME female candidate, in a noticeable vacuum of BME representation in Sheffield

As a committed, experienced commander of the media, I embody the promise and potential that Sheffield represents. I have a coalition of communities in support and cross- cultural appeal and I represent genuine community cohesion.

What do we need to do to win this election:

We need to engage in social media, hand-in-hand, with the oldest form of social media: knocking on doors, treading the streets, standing in the squares, on the shopping parades in each-and-every ward and canvassing views. The working class men, like my dad, didn’t vote for the Labour Party, as the party is seen as being out of reach and out of touch. If we cannot appeal a man like that, a skilled manual steel worker, still working at 64, our natural core vote - we are failing our Labour legacy.

Accordingly, I would support a legislative tsunami in the first One Hundred Days to insure a reversal of fortunes that can be felt in Sheffield and not just London; for the working classes not just the middle classes too. The new social justice legislation should embody fairness, justice and proportionality. I will rebuild and inspire the ground force - volunteers, the activists and the councillors and bring in new voters. The rebuilding of the party cannot take place in a vacuum of funding. The fundraising needs to be innovative and unique insuring that every member with a vote, as well the electorate are engaged and own a part of policy and the party.

Women have undoubtedly been disproportionately affected by austerity measures – analysis of the Tory-led coalition’s first spending review found that women bore 72% of the proposed tax rises and benefit cuts. Rising unemployment, falling wages and cuts to benefits are pushing many women from being able to just about make ends meet into poverty and debt.We also need to reinvigorate the general electorate to register to vote, our natural Labour supporters don’t feel listened to nor respected at the best of times. We

need to know our Labour history and apply it to the concerns, visions and aspirations for traditional Labour community.

Finally, we need to confront the hot potatoes of immigration, race relations and working class attainment in schools, not just in Sheffield but countrywide. I am a first born immigrant, who through the power of education, integration and assimilation and hard work have I been able to now, be giving back to my community.

Your Labour Party Experience:

Constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow CLP

Part-time community assistant to

Working with Baroness Oona King MP Election in 2005.

Known as the “campaign of all campaigns”, pioneering the use of first coordinated use of email and text to contact voters.

Challenging the divisive message of Respect Party on the doorstep.

Part-time research assistant to

Working with the Rushanara Ali MP

Shadow Education Minister Election 2010. The campaign to oust George Galloway MP from a Labour heartland and Tower Hamlets Summer University to maintain educational standards in one of the most deprived boroughs in the London.

Campaigned for Rushanara Ali in 2007 for PPC

Helping to re energise bruised party activists demoralised by a shock defeat

Choosing a winning candidate to support

Constituency Streatham and Clapham CLP

Campaigned for Chukka Ummuna

Shadow Business Secretary in 2009 for PPC

Parliamentary and International

A Trustee to Women’s Resource Centre, London 2006-2013

Department of Equalities Liaison to the CEO (2007-8)

Department of Cultural Media and Sport Liaison (2010 - 2013)

Our organisation complied a shadow report to present to the UN on CEDAW - The Convention Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (UN) General Assembly in 1979, the CEDAW Convention is often referred to as the Women’s International Bill of Rights. Unlike domestic UK and European Community legislation on sex discrimination and equal treatment, the Convention is solely concerned with the position of women rather than discrimination faced by both sexes (which would include discrimination and inequalities faced by men). http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cedaw/pages/cedawindex.asp

Other life experience, including work and study:

I worked in a supermarket for seven years to fund myself through school and university and learnt how just to talk to everybody a quality which has stood me in good stead as a barrister, unbelievably, it was my training ground.

In contrast, I was a trustee at the Attlee Foundation (2002-2004), which is where the Poor Man’s Lawyer Scheme started which evolved into the Legal Aid Scheme - a foundation of our democracy, that legal advice is based upon, merit and need not credit and greed.

What makes you a great campaigner:

- I am an effective user of social and real time broadcast media as a tool to support a campaign at the parliamentary and constituency level.

- Powerful personal presence and on live media - an anchor in a media storm.

- Can discuss issues of diversity, community cohesion with credibility and belief.

- Have a research degree and can analyse immediately complex statistics in media and write my own press releases based upon the same.

- Assisted the Women’s Resource Centre at Board level with its report to the United Nations on Women’s Rights in the UK (CEDAW)

Give some examples of your communication skills:

Written Articles Labour Left September 2010

Presentation Live Conferences Specialist Speakers Agency From May 2014 Wellbeing Conference November 2014

Labour Party Conference September 2014

National Fostering Agency April 2014

Gaza! What is the Difference Between Loyalty and Morality? August 2014 Sheffield Town Hall [Video on Website]

Presentation Live Television

ITV 1 This Morning as an Expert in Family, Gestational and Child Law May 2007 ITV 1 Daytime-The Victims Code CPS Guidelines on Victims Mar 2013 Sky News The Man Desert with Adam Boulton May 2013 Sky News Gay Marriage the Legal Challenge Feb 2013

BBC News Gay Dads Challenge to the Church of England. Feb 2013 BBC Academy Expert Women Training Day

Northern Ireland and London Sept 2013 Sky News Children in Care Grooming Girls Dec 2013

BBC News Channel Monthly News Commentator Jan to date Martin Brown The Evening Standard Tim Montgomerie Times Tim Montgomerie Times Torcuil Crichton Daily Record Oliver Brown Telegraph James Rampton Independent LBC Monthly News Commentator Mar to date

Sky News Cinderella Law with Adam Boulton May 2014 BBC News Cinderella Law with Hugh Edwards May 2014 BBC News Privatising Child Protection Martine Croxall May 2014 Sky News Forced Caesarian or Child Protection May 2014 BBC News The Queens‘ Speech- Legal Proposals June 2014 Sky News The Queens‘ Speech - Legal Proposals June 2014

BBC Question Time (Mentorn Talent Pool) BBC Local Radio Talent Pool (BBC Academy) BBC London Newspaper Review Voice Trial August 2014

BBC Radio Sheffield with Jenny Eells Burngreave Ain’t Bad! [On Website] August 2014

BBC Radio Leicester Various BBC Radio London Various BBC Radio Nottingham Various BBC Radio Derby Various BBC Radio West Various August 2014 BBC News Emotional Abuse - Should It Become a Crime August 2014 BBC News Rape - The new laws August 2014

BBC One Mentorn- BBC Question Time Pool May 2015 BBC Radio London NewPaper Review Sept 2014 BBC News Channel Newspaper Reviewer October 2014

Describe the particular skills you have which will help you as an elected representative (for example, in problem solving):

I have a research degree in Law - LLM in Child Law and Policy.

Therefore, I am able to command statistics and understand complex data sets on social science.

I am also able to chat with ease and confidence with government ministers and constituents, I can move between daytime television to prime time political current affairs in the broadcast media.

Give examples of interpersonal, teamwork and liaison skills:

I was trustee at the Women’s Resource Centre in London as a board member for seven years, I was the liaison with the Department of Media Cultural and Sport. I know how Parliament operates and how the best MP’s stand up for their constituents as well as supporting the national party when its necessary.

I am experienced in working with national non-governmental organisations and their sister organisations to promote a campaign for change, for example, allowing women who have suffered domestic violence or children damaged by clinical negligence to be exempt from the legal aid cuts.

Apart from the skills and experience described above, please give any examples of other knowledge and/or skills which will assist you as a candidate:

-I understand the politics in Sheffield and what is needed to push the positive local agenda rather than waiting for the adverse stories to remain unchallenged and to develop into a crisis.

-The ability to appeal as a only candidate for inclusion, uniting a constituency that is 30% BAME. I’m from Sheffield-I understand the issues and understand all communities being mixed race, Asian and Afro Caribbean woman, my twins are also mixed race again - the issues of immigration and integration? I am a living embodiment that hard work and graft do pay and now its my turn to payback and that your race should not be a bar to achievement or an excuse for under performance. I am a walking UKIP nightmare - I believe in this country, in our county and this city can accommodate all immigration narratives.

-Working locally and in Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds and Bradford as a barrister whilst working for media in London, I often act as a conduit for local issues to get national prominence.

-Having worked on a campaign against Respect, I see how easy it is for communities and the vote to be split by divisive messages. It is essential to set out Labour policy, clearly and reflect the needs of the wards, where UKIP will be trying to divide the natural Labour vote. I would enhance the CLP by igniting new initiatives for fundraising and targeting unregistered voters buttressing the core vote to repel locally, UKIP first, the Libdems second and the Tories nationally.

- As a woman who has faced hardship and trials, herself, other women will feel able to join my female only constituency meetings feeling comfortable to discuss issues that may remain undisclosed to a male MP, especially in this constituency.

Parliamentary and Assembly Selection CANDIDATE CV – Declarations

1. Are there any matters in my political or personal record which, if revealed, could publicly embarrass the Labour Party or affect public confidence in my position as a representative.* (If yes, a separate confidential note should be supplied to the Procedure Secretary which may be divulged to the Selection Committee). Yes No X

2. I have completed a statement of my interests and this is attached. I understand that the Labour Party’s code of conduct requires me to declare membership of allegedly secret organisations such as the Freemasons, Knights of St Columba etc.

3. I know of no legal reason or party rule which would prevent me from being a Labour candidate.

Signed Sophia Cannon Date: 12th September 2014

If you are submitting these forms by email your name typed above is your acceptance that the information provided is a true and accurate record.

* If there is any matter which you feel might need to be declared under this provision, but which you would wish to discuss in confidence before making disclosure or completing this declaration, please contact Your Regional Director or General Secretary (details of your regional or national office can be found at www.labour.org) or the Compliance Unit at the Labour Party on 0207 783 1498 This form, complete with attachments, must be sent to The Procedure Secretary of the selection concerned or as otherwise directed

Please keep a copy of the form and attachments for your own records.

Parliamentary and Assembly Selection CANDIDATE CV – Statement of Interests

The NEC Procedural Rules for the Selection of Parliamentary Candidates states that all parliamentary candidates must submit a Register of Interest Form. Should there be any alteration to the information given, then a new Register of Interests form should be submitted

Name – Last Cannon Name – First Sophia Membership Number L0066070

Please list all your paid employments including directorships, partnerships, self-employment and fee-earning consultancies. Self Employment as a barrister and media commentator Please list all land and property owned (freehold or leasehold) or rented 2 Ulverstone Road, SE27 0AJ 27 Hector House, E2 6QX Please list the names of companies in which you have an interest greater than one per cent of the issued share capital.

Please list the names of any societies and organisations of which you are a member including, for example, Working Mens Clubs, Co-operative and other Friendly Societies, and religious and secular organisations (eg Masonic and Orange Lodges, Knights of St Columbia) The Women’s Resource Centre

The Bar Council - Barrister

Signed: Sophia Cannon Date: 5th September 2014 14.09 2014 If you are submitting these forms by email your name typed above is your acceptance that the information provided is a true and accurate record.

This Form should be returned with your application form.