Rachel Blake

Rachel Nancy Blake is a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician and Member of Parliament (MP) who served as a councillor in London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Bow East ward since 2014. Blake was the Deputy Mayor in Tower Hamlets from 2018 until 2022. In July 2024 she was elected Labour MP for the Cities of London and Westminster.

Blake was born in Manchester and grew up in London where she currently lives.

Career
Blake attended the University of Cambridge, before studying for a master's degree in Social Policy at the London School of Economics. Blake joined the Labour Party in 2003. Early in her career, she was a policy advisor at HM Treasury under Gordon Brown and was a member of Kate Barker's team on a Review of Land Use Planning which was published in December 2006. From 2009 to 2013, she was a manager at East London Housing Partnership.

In May 2014, Blake was elected as a Labour Party councillor for Bow East ward on Tower Hamlets London Borough Council and appointed to the Cabinet in July 2015.

Representing the Local Government Association at a hearing of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee in June 2021, she noted that national regulations often held back and undermined local ambition and innovation on climate change. She called for more ambitious building standards on energy efficiency, but noted that competitions for funding meant councils often wasted resources on bidding rather than getting on with the job. At a Local Government Association community wellbeing ward in December 2021 she attacked poor organisation of the COVID-19 vaccine booster programme.

Rachel Blake is vice-chair of the Labour Housing Group. She was previously the secretary of the London Labour Housing Group and a member of the London Legacy Development Corporation Board. She has campaigned for tougher regulations of short-term rentals in London, housing improvements and other built environment issues.

Personal life
Blake's partner, Marc Francis, is a fellow Tower Hamlets borough councillor. She has two sons. She is a member of Unison and the GMB Union.