In 1986, at the age of 23, Kennedy was elected to Southwark Council as a councillor for Newington ward. He subsequently held a variety of positions on the council, including Deputy Leader. Appointed to the full-time staff of the Labour Party in 1990, he took up the post of organiser for the party in Coventry in 1991. He was instrumental in the defeat of the Militant MP Dave Nellist, who had been deselected as a Labour candidate, in the 1992 general election. In 1994, Kennedy moved to the East Midlands and was Regional Director from 1997 to 2005. At the end of 2005, he took up the post of Director of Finance and Compliance, joining the senior management team of the Labour Party. He was appointed an Honorary Alderman by Southwark Council in 2007. He was made a life peer in Gordon Brown's dissolution honours list in 2010, and was created Baron Kennedy of Southwark, of Newington in the London Borough of Southwark on 21 June 2010, and he made his maiden speech in the House of Lords on 21 July 2010. On 30 September 2010, he left the employment of the Labour Party, after more than twenty years service, though remained a Labour Party trustee until April 2011. The next day, 1 October 2010, he was appointed as an Electoral Commissioner, on the nomination of the Labour Party. He was the first ever Labour Party member to serve as an Electoral Commissioner, but decided to seek election to Lewisham Council in May 2014, rather than serve a second term on the Electoral Commission. He was replaced on the Electoral Commission by the former Minister and MP for Lewisham East, Bridget Prentice. Kennedy has been an Opposition Whip and Front-bench Spokesperson in the Lords on Cabinet Office, Justice and Housing, Communities and Local Government matters since October 2011. Since joining the Lords, he has spoken up in support of credit unions on numerous occasions and is the Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Credit Unions. He is a Director of London Mutual Credit Union, which is one of the largest and most successful credit unions in the UK. He is one of a group of 48 Labour MPs and Peers that are also members of the Cooperative Party Parliamentary Group. In early 2014, he was elected as Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Voter Registration. He was elected in May 2014 to Lewisham Council, representing the ward of Crofton Park, which is in the Lewisham Deptfordparliamentary constituency.
Community work
Kennedy is a trustee of the United St Saviour's Charity, which was founded in 1540 and funds a broad range of community initiatives and provides sheltered accommodation for retirees in Southwark. He is also a trustee of the Ackroyd Community Centre, which hosts a variety of services for the local community across Forest Hill, Crofton Park and Honor Oak Park. Additionally, he is a governor of Morley College, President of the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists and Vice President of the Southwark Chamber of Commerce.
