Lee Jasper (born 4 November 1958) is a British politician and activist. He served as Senior Policy Advisor on Equalities to the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone until he resigned on 4 March 2008. More recently, he stood as the Respect Party candidate for the Croydon North by-election in November 2012, and is a race relations activist. Early life and career Jasper was born on 4 November 1958 in Oldham, Lancashire, where he was brought up by his British-born mother, who is of Irish and Sierra-Leonean descent. His father is Jamaican. He described his surroundings as a child as dominated by "crude racism". He started out running a market stall, selling second-hand clothes. He returned to education as a mature student and gained a degree in social sciences from Manchester Polytechnic. Career He moved to London in 1985, where he became closely involved in the Notting Hill Carnival, becoming chair of the Mangrove Community Association. He was elected Secretary of the Notting Hill Carnival in 1987. It was at this time he met Brian Paddick, who described him as a "street hustler" whose group would "sell bits of the pavement they didn't own", ultimately overcoming opposition from the local police chief seeking to enforce the local authority's licenses. Jasper ran to be director of the carnival in 1989, but did not get elected. Over the next decade, Jasper became a race and human rights activist, sitting on various committees and groups such as the Inner London Education Authority. He was founder of Operation Trident and the Royal Commonwealth Society. He was a witness at the Stephen Lawrence inquiry as a representative of the 1990 Trust. He was also a group member of the Lawrence campaign. Jasper was once involved in a community policing partnership with Metropolitan Police, providing "£500-a-day police racism awareness courses" on community issues. This role ceased in 1995, following the Brixton riots, during which Jasper has been criticised by some for making "very, very angry speech" prior to the violence. Jasper was one of the main officers of the National Assembly Against Racism and has since been praised for developing the "cautious rapprochement" between communities and the police in London. Jasper was criticised by Conservative politician Shaun Bailey as "representing the old school of black politics", and was accused of playing the "race card" too often. Operation Black Vote coordinator Simon Woolley, however, described Jasper as