Oona King

Baroness King of Bow: My Lords, in the short time available, I shall concentrate on two areas: the link between positive child development and early intervention strategies, and the link between early intervention strategies and reducing the economic deficit. I also wanted to discuss the link between poor housing and stunted child development, but time limits mean that will have to wait until another day.

17 March 2011

Baroness King of Bow: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, for securing this debate and especially for her excellent speech, which summarised the benefits of early intervention. I do not believe that it is hyperbole to say that the future of this country rests on whether we implement successful early intervention strategies-certainly, the future of our children rests on it.

Ken Livingstone is planning to bring his former rival Oona King into City Hall if he is elected London mayor next week. Lady King will be the young people's champion implementing Labour's manifesto for young Londoners, if Livingstone beats Boris Johnson on 3 May, though the status of her advisory role remains unclear at this stage.

The surprise announcement, a week before polling day, comes 19 months after Livingstone promised to make use of King's talents after he beat her in Labour's selection process for a mayoral candidate.

Livingstone said of his decision to bring the former MP for Bethnal Green and Bow into the fold: "I was consistently impressed by Oona's ideas to help young Londoners during the Labour selection contest. I told her then I'd steal her best policies – now I've gone further, asking her to lead on our work with London's young people and I'm delighted that she's agreed.

"Oona will form an integral part of a fresh Labour administration at City Hall, as we work together to stand up for Londoners being hit hard by a Tory onslaught."