Contributor(s): Diane Abbott MP | The lecture will focus on the challenges facing London as a city and policy ideas to address these, chiefly the growing nature of inequality in London, the city’s growing population, the escalating housing crisis, the impact of welfare reform, and the effects of the health and social care act on public health. Additionally, the talk will seek to address the issue of powers available to City Hall in the light of the devolution question. Diane Abbott is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, when she became the first black woman to be elected to the House of Commons. In 2010, Abbott became Shadow Public Health Minister after unsuccessfully standing for election to the leadership of the Labour Party. She tweets as @HackneyAbbott.