Sir Ernest Ashley Bramall (6 January 1916 – 10 February 1999) was a British Labour Party politician, Member of Parliament for Bexley from 1946 to 1950 and Leader of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) for 11 years.
Bramall's family were wealthy merchants from Hampshire, but his mother was a socialist and did much to convince her son to support the left in politics.
During the campaign, the Government was forced to introduce rationing of bread, which had never been needed during the war, and many were impressed that Bramall won the seat narrowly.
He made a successful maiden speech outlining the difficulties in administering Germany and removing Nazi-controlled institutions of government.
In the 1950 election, Bramall lost his seat by 133 votes to his old University adversary Edward Heath with whom he always remained personally friendly.
He was under pressure to stand as a candidate to replace Reg Goodwin as Labour Leader on the GLC in 1980, but resisted because he wanted to continue at ILEA.
This made the left determined to replace him, and when Labour won GLC control in 1981 with a new left-wing majority, Bramall was voted out as ILEA leader.
Knowing this was going to happen, Bramall had cleared out his office and left a note to his replacement on the desk before going to the meeting where the vote for leader was to take place.
In his retirement, Bramall held many public appointments including Directorships of the Museum of London, Chairman of the Westminster College of Further Education, and Honorary Secretary of the Theatres Advisory Council.
In 1996 he acted as Agent in a local byelection which saw Mair Garside, formerly his Deputy at ILEA, elected to Westminster City Council.