Reed was born and raised in St Albans, Hertfordshire and attended Verulam School.[3] His family worked at Odhams printing factory in Watford until it closed down in 1983.[4][5] Around this time, he joined the Labour Party. He went on to study English at Sheffield University.[5] He started work in the educational publishing industry in 1990, and worked for Routledge, Thomson International, the Law Society and Sweet & Maxwell.[5][3]
After Labour won back control of Lambeth Council in 2006, Reed was appointed the council's leader. At the beginning of his tenure, after Labour took political control of the council, Lambeth was rated as London's worst-run borough, with a one-star rating in the Audit Commission's annual inspection in 2006.[6] By 2009 the council had improved to a three-star rating.[7] At the 2010 election, Labour gained seats from the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, making it the first time that Labour had been re-elected to lead in Lambeth for twenty years.
Reed held a number of significant positions in local government. He was:
Deputy Leader of Local Government Labour, an association representing Labour councillors nationally;[8]
Deputy Chairman of the Local Government Association;[9]
London Councils board member for Children's Services and Employment;[10]
Chairman of Central London Forward, a lobbying group representing five inner-London boroughs;[11]
A board member representing London's boroughs on the London Enterprise Partnership;[12]
Co-chair of the Vauxhall-Nine Elms-Battersea regeneration board;[13]
Chairman of the London Young People's Education and Skills Board;[14]
A member of the London Board of the Homes and Communities Agency between 2009 and 2011[15]
While a member of Lambeth's Council, Steve Reed introduced a scheme to "Name and Shame" users of recreational drugs. In an interview with the Daily Mirror recounting this, he stated, "We wanted to send out the signal that, if you think it's acceptable to come and buy drugs here, and leave behind you the trail of destruction the drugs trade causes on our streets, we will do everything we can to stop you and we will let your friends, family and employers know what you've done."[16] He also indicated that a Labour government would be willing to look at implementing this policy nationwide.[17]
In May 2010, Reed launched a consultation on plans to turn Lambeth into the country's first co-operative council[18][19] intending to deliver better services more cost-effectively by giving more control to communities and service users, reported in The Guardian newspaper as a possible new model for Labour in local government.[20] The final report of Lambeth Council's Cooperative Council Commission[21] laid out the plans for achieving this objective and Lambeth Council put a transformation plan into effect.
Reed was reported to the Standards Board by a Conservative councillor after he disclosed that she was barred from voting on financial matters because of her refusal to pay council tax on one of her properties for several years.[22] This information was legally disclosable and no sanction was imposed.[23]
Reed's first attempt to enter Parliament was in Lambeth, contesting the Labour nomination for the Streatham constituency in 2008, on the retirement of Keith Hill. In March of that year, Reed was beaten to the nomination by Chuka Umunna. On 3 November 2012, Reed defeated former Croydon Council leader Val Shawcross by three votes[27] to become the Labour candidate for Croydon North.[28] The by-election followed the death of the former Labour MP for Croydon North Malcolm Wicks, and was won by Reed on 29 November 2012.[29]
In October 2013, Reed was appointed a Shadow Home Office Minister by the Labour leader Ed Miliband.[30]
In the 2015 general election, Reed was re-elected with 33,513 votes (a 62.5% share, up 6.6% from the previous general election in 2010) and a majority of 21,364 (39.9%) with a 62.3% turnout.[31]
In June 2018, Reed attempted to get a bill through Parliament to make hospitals reveal details about how and when they use physical force against patients and provide hospital staff with training about unconscious bias against minority groups such as young black men with mental health problems. Reed referred to the death of his constituent, Olaseni Lewis, aged 23 during use of restraint at Bethlem hospital.[35] A filibuster by Conservative MP Philip Davies prevented the bill succeeding.[36] Reed's bill was passed on 6 July 2018; it requires that police attending mental hospitals to apply restraints must wear body cameras.[37]
In July 2020, Reed published a tweet labelling the businessman Richard Desmond a "puppet-master", said to be an antisemitic trope. He apologised and deleted the tweet after he found out Desmond was Jewish. Jewish Conservative MP Andrew Percy said "Alluding to Jews as puppet-masters is an age old antisemitic trope and for a Shadow Cabinet member to use this trope is totally unacceptable".[38][39] Reed subsequently spoke of his longstanding commitment to Labour Friends of Israel.[40]
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