Liz Davies

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Liz Davies (born 1963) is a British barrister and political activist. She is the daughter of retired Oxford academic and historian of Tudor England, C.S.L. Davies.

Specialising in housing law, Davies initially worked as a solicitor before being called to the bar in 1994. A former Labour Party councillor in Islington (1990-98), she was selected as the Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Leeds North-East in 1995, but was subsequently found "unsuitable" as a candidate by a large majority of the Labour Party's ruling National Executive Committee.^[1] Davies' selection was accompanied by allegations over her behaviour at Labour group meetings, for which Davies' later commenced legal proceedings against three former Islington councillors, which ended in a settlement in which the three apologised and made a contribution to the general election fund of their local MP. She was also attacked for her association with the newspaper London Left Briefing, perceived as being a Trotskyist publication by some, and having had earlier connections with Trotskyist groups .^{[citation needed]} She was elected as a member of the NEC in October 1998 on the Grassroots Alliance slate, serving on the body for two years, an experience recounted in her book.

Later after resigning from the Labour Party, she joined the Socialist Alliance in 2001, becoming the organisation's national chair for nine months. She resigned from the SA in October 2002 over claims of financial "bad practice"^[2] and frustration at the way the Socialist Workers Party's leadership had conducted itself in the organisation's activities.^[3]

Liz Davies' partner is the American-born political activist and writer Mike Marqusee.

[edit] References

^ "A Dissenter Inside New Labour", by Dennis L. Bird, Contemporary Review, June 2002.
^ "Executive wake-up call", Weekly Worker, 454, October 31, 2002
^ "A Spin too Far", Sign of the Times seminar, February 24, 2002 (subsequently updated).