[4][5] Benita's father is Cornish; he moved to London, working there as a local primary school teacher, after graduating from Loughborough University.

[5] Benita joined the Department for Transport in 1996, having entered the Civil Service on the Fast Stream graduate programme.

[citation needed] She stepped down from that role in August 2016 to become the chief strategy officer of the unit set up by the university in 2016 to develop its presence and activity in London.

[11] In 2016, she joined the Liberal Democrats, shortly after the 2016 European Union referendum claiming it was the "only true pro-remain party".

She stated she would like to see pilots for legal regulated cannabis across London in order to remove power and money from gangs, free up police time to tackle serious crimes, and raise millions of pounds in tax, which could be invested in youth services and support those addicted to harder drugs.

[16][17] On 27 July 2020, Benita announced her withdrawal from the Lib Dem mayoral candidacy, saying she was unable to commit to another year of campaigning following the election's postponement to 2021 given the unpaid nature of the role.

[2] In August 2020, Benita left the Liberal Democrats, saying she did not wish to be "associated with current events in the London [mayoral] campaign," after one of the two shortlisted candidates to replace Benita, Geeta Sidhu-Robb, was revealed to have made an antisemitic statement about Labour MP Jack Straw while standing against Straw in the 1997 general election as a Conservative.