Who is Heidi Alexander and why has she quit? Ex-Lewisham East MP and new London deputy mayor

LABOUR Leader Jeremy Corbyn was dealt a fresh blow after Lewisham East MP Heidi Alexander said she will quit the Commons to work for Sadiq Khan at City Hall.

The ex-shadow health secretary left the Labour boss's top team in June 2016 and has now become the deputy mayor for transport in London - here's what you need to know.

Who is Heidi Alexander?

Heidi Alexander, 43, was born in Swindon, Wiltshire and is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham East since the 2010 general election until her resignation May 8 2018.

She was elected to Lewisham London Borough Council as a councillor for the Evelyn ward in 2004, and served as Deputy Mayor of Lewisham and Cabinet Member for regeneration from 2006. She was selected as the Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Lewisham East in October 2009 and was elected to Parliament in 2010.

Alexander was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health on September 13 2015, the day after Jeremy Corbyn was elected as Labour Leader.

In June 2016, Alexander became the first of many Shadow Cabinet ministers to resign and call for a new party leader following the EU referendum result.

"I loved being the shadow health secretary. But I hated being part of the shadow cabinet because it was entirely dysfunctional." she wrote in the Guardian in 2016, and called the Labour party "so inept, so unprofessional, so shoddy. There was no effort to build a team".

She also served as Sadiq Khan’s campaign chair for the London mayoral election in 2016.

Why has she quit?

On May 8 2018, Alexander announced she had resigned her seat as an MP to become Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for transport for London.