Toby Harris, Baron Harris of Haringey

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Jonathan Toby Harris, Baron Harris of Haringey (born 11 October 1953) is a Labour Party politician in the House of Lords.

Educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he went on to become President of the Cambridge Union Society.

He is a former councillor and leader of Haringey Borough Council, and was Chair of the Association of London Government. He was made a Life Peer in 1998 as Baron Harris of Haringey, of Hornsey in the London Borough of Haringey. He was a Haringey councillor for 24 years, and stood down in 2002, two years after being elected to the London Assembly for Brent and Harrow in 2000. This was unrelated to the row fomented by the local Conservative and Liberal Democrat Parties about the expenses he incurred, including over £15,000 spent on taxi fares[1] A District Auditor's investigation cleared him of any inpropriety, although was critical of the flaws of a system which meant that councillors were never sent the invoices for such expenses and so did not know the sums charged by the cab companies. [2]

He was the Leader of the Labour Group on the Assembly until he lost his seat at the 2004 Assembly election. He was the first chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority from 2000 to 2004, overseeing the introduction of police community support officers and neighbourhood policing. He is now the Home Secretary's representative on the Metropolitan Police Authority.

Lord Harris of Haringey is a senior advisor to KPMG and a number of other public and private sector organisations. He was Director of the Association of Community Health Councils for England and Wales (then the national statutory body representing users of the NHS) from 1987 to 1998.

He is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Policing and is Treasurer of the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee. In the House of Lords, he specialises in policing matters, local government, technology and health issues.