Linda Ann Bellos (born 13 December 1950) is a British businesswoman, radical feminist and gay-rights activist. In 1981 she became the first black woman to join the Spare Rib collective. She was elected to Lambeth Borough Council in London in 1985 and was the leader of the council from 1986 to 1988. Early life Bellos was born in London to a white Polish Jewish mother, Renee Sackman, and Nigerian, Yoruba father, Emmanuel Adebowale, who came from Uzebba and had joined the merchant navy during the Second World War. Renee Sackman was disowned by her family for marrying an African Christian. Raised in Brixton, Bellos was educated at Silverthorne Girls' Secondary Modern School, Dick Sheppard Comprehensive School, and the University of Sussex (1978–81). Career Feminism Bellos is a radical feminist and was the first non-white lesbian to join the Spare Rib feminist collective in 1981. She criticises the movement's "point scoring" and the manner in which the women's movement was, in her view, dominated by white, middle-class women. She rejects the term "mixed race" because she considers that every attempt to define race is reduced to definitions of skin colour. She uses the term "mixed heritage" instead. Bellos is a person of African and Eastern European Jewish heritage. She uses the inclusive political term of "Black" to describe herself. Politics She was vice-chair of the successful Labour Party Black Sections campaign to select African, Caribbean and Asian parliamentary and local candidates within the Labour Party. In 1985 Bellos was elected as a Labour councillor to Lambeth London Borough Council and was leader of the council between 1986 and 1988. She was the second Black woman to become leader of a British local authority, after Merle Amory in the northwest London Borough of Brent. Bellos resigned as leader on 21 April 1988, after disputes within the Labour Party over the setting of the council budget. She was a prominent figure in left-wing politics in London in the 1980s and was labelled by The Sun as a member of the "Loony Left". Bellos attempted to become a parliamentary candidate, without success, most notably for Vauxhall, south London, in the Lambeth borough, where there was a by-election in 1989, following the resignation of Stuart Holland MP. Fellow Black Sections vice-chair Martha Osamor was chosen by the local party to be the prospective parliamentary candidate but she was rejected as too left-wing by Labour leader