Efford was first elected to
Greenwich Council in
1986 for the Eltham
Well Hall Ward. He was re-elected in
1990 and
1994, becoming the Labour Group Chief Whip in 1990. In Parliament, he has served on a number of
Select committees, including being a member of the
Transport Select Committee from 2001 to 2008. In 2003, he was one of the Labour MPs who rebelled against the government and voted against UK involvement in the
Iraq War. In 2005, Efford was responsible for the reformation of the previously defunct
Tribune Group, though unlike its previous incarnation, membership was restricted to backbench Labour MPs. In 2008, he became the
parliamentary private secretary to
Housing Minister Margaret Beckett, later becoming the PPS to
John Healey in the same role from 2009 to 2010. He was one of the first MPs to declare his support for
Ed Miliband, the successful candidate, in the
2010 Labour leadership election. Miliband subsequently appointed him to the
Opposition Front Bench in 2011 as a Shadow Home Office Minister under new
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. In the reshuffle of October 2011, he became the
Shadow Minister for Sport. Clive Efford was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate
Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the
Labour leadership election of 2015 and he retained his position in Corbyn's shadow cabinet. He resigned from Corbyn's shadow cabinet following a large number of resignations from the
Labour front bench on 28 June 2016. He supported
Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the
2016 Labour leadership election. Efford was shortlisted for the
Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 for his work on National Health Service Bill, and he remains in the directory of the Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who publication. Efford relaunched
the Tribune Group of MPs in April 2017, aiming to reconnect with traditional Labour voters while also appealing to the centre ground. Efford endorsed
Keir Starmer in the
2020 Labour Party leadership election. In August 2025 Efford was a founder member of
Mainstream (political organisation) described as a soft left pressure group within the Labour Party. ==References==