Kat Fletcher
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Kat Fletcher | |
|---|---|
| Mayor of Islington | |
| In office 13 May 2016 – 11 May 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Richard Greening |
| Succeeded by | Una O’Halloran |
| Deputy Mayor of Islington | |
| In office 15 May 2015 – 12 May 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Richard Greening |
| Succeeded by | Una O’Halloran |
| Islington Borough Councillor for St George's Ward | |
| In office 21 March 2013 – 1 November 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Jessica Asato |
| 51st President of the National Union of Students | |
| In office 2004 – March 2006 | |
| Preceded by | Mandy Telford |
| Succeeded by | Gemma Tumelty |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kathryn Jane Fletcher 20 December 1979 |
| Party | Labour |
| Alma mater | University of Leeds |
Kathryn "Kat" Jane Fletcher (born 20 December 1979) is a British Labour Party politician. In May 2016, she was sworn in as the Mayor of Islington, having served as a councillor of the borough's St George's Ward since 2013.[1] She was previously president of the National Union of Students, between 2004 and 2006, the first to be elected from a political slate to the left of Labour Students.
Born in Sheffield, Fletcher was the General Secretary of Sheffield College's students' union, where she joined the Campaign for Free Education (CFE) and the Alliance for Workers' Liberty, a small Trotskyist group. She later attended the University of Leeds where she studied Social Policy and Education. After studying for two years, she was elected as the NUS National Women's Officer, and subsequently to the NUS Block of Twelve part-time officers. She then returned to Leeds, graduating in 2004.[citation needed]
NUS president
She was elected president in 2004 in an extremely close contest, which she won by only two votes after six rounds of transfers, having lost the 2003 election by only three votes to the incumbent candidate. Although a long-standing member of the Labour Party, she ran on a leftist platform as a member of the Campaign for Free Education (CFE) criticising the NUS proximity to Tony Blair's Labour government, particularly on the issue of tuition fees. After being elected she pushed through a process of NUS reform which she claimed was necessary to save the organisation from financial crisis.
She left the AWL before being elected president; during her first year in office, she disbanded CFE, as a result of reinstating free education policy. It was at this point that the AWL and other left-wing activists such as the CFE's successor organisation Education Not for Sale came into sharp opposition to her.
In 2005, she stood for re-election without any description, winning by the largest margin in NUS history. Other candidates standing included Conservative Future's candidate Michael Champion and the Socialist Workers' Student Society candidate Suzie Wylie.