by Ken Livingstone before Evans lost to the Liberal Democrats. Evans was awarded an honorary doctorate by Brunel University London in 1998. Evans is a Vice President of the League Against Cruel Sports, a trustee of BRAC-UK, and of the Brussels-based South Asian charity, NGO Shipbreaking Platform. He is a Life Member of Ashford Cricket Club, Cambridge University Cricket Club, and a long-standing member of Ashford Middlesex Hockey Club, MCC and Middlesex County Cricket Club. In November 2012, Evans was Labour's candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in Surrey. On 2 May 2013, he was elected Surrey County Councillor for the Stanwell and Stanwell Moor ward. As a Surrey county councillor, Evans has campaigned in favour of public services, particularly the retention of his local fire station, Staines Fire Station in Stanwell. He campaigned against a third runway at Heathrow Airport and in favour of the airport being "better not bigger". In May 2014, Evans proposed a successful vote to achieve Fairtrade status for Surrey - the first county in the south of England to do so. The change was opposed by the Conservative leader of many years' standing. Despite being a lone Labour councillor, Evans has achieved a string of successes at County Council level, including persuading Surrey to oppose a return to grammar schools, to acknowledge and congratulate Sadiq Khan on being elected in 2016 as Mayor of London and to adopt the Co-operative Party charter against modern slavery. He was profiled by the political journalist, Richard Heller on politics.co.uk, Evans was re-elected to this seat in May 2017 with an 11% increase in his vote on what was otherwise a disappointing night for Labour. He was again comfortably re-elected with an increased vote in 2021. Evans was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for political and public service. Personal life He speaks French, Spanish and is learning Bengali. See also 2004 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom References External links Robert Evans (Twitter account) 1956 births Alumni of the University of London Living people English people of Welsh descent Labour Co-operative MEPs MEPs for England 1994–1999 MEPs for England 2004–2009 People educated at Ashford County Grammar School Academics_of_Royal_Holloway,_University_of_London Officers of the Order of the British Empire