As the General Election approaches, only six candidates have put their names forward for the Bethnal Greenand Bow constituency, fighting for the honour of being its last MP. In alphabetical order, here's the choice I face locally.
• Rushanara Ali(Labour) - The sitting MP (until Parliament was dissolved), Rushanara took back the seat for Labour in 2010 after George Galloway buggered off elsewhere. She's Britain's first MP of Bangladeshi origin, and grew up round here (although she currently lives in the West Ham constituency). In 2014 she resigned as a shadow minister over Iraq, in 2015 she nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour party leadership, in 2016 she called on him to step down, and in 2017 she defied the party whip over the triggering of Article 50. She's also the only candidate to have stood for election in this constituency before. [website][Twitter]
• Shahrar Ali(Green) Shahrar is one of the Green Party's fifteen national spokespeople, his portfolio being Home Affairs. He joined the Greens in 2002, fresh from working as a researcher in the European Parliament, and has been one of the party's Deputy Leaders since 2014. His PhD focused on the morality of lying and deception, though from a philosophical rather than political viewpoint. He stood for the London Assembly in 2016, but was third on the Green Party's list from which only the top two were elected. [website][Twitter][Facebook]
• David Axe(Brexit) - David was pencilled in to fight Chingford and Woodford Green, where he lives, but Nigel's decision not to contest Tory-held seats means he's been parachuted into Bethnal Green and Bow instead. He's on the steering committee of Invoke Democracy Now – an umbrella campaign seeking to uphold the "democratic mandate" to leave the EU. David doesn't tweet much in a personal capacity, but does retweet a lot of other people's content. He supports Arsenal and Smoker's Rights. [Twitter]
• Josh Babarinde(Liberal Democrat) - Josh is a social entrepreneur in his mid 20s and the founder of Cracked It, a social enterprise whereby young ex-offenders pop round to your workplace to fix broken phone screens. It's intended as a heavy nudge away from crime and towards employment, has had some goodpress and is based in Dalston. Josh is a rising Lib Dem activist who fronts rallies and has appeared on BBC2 Politics Live, and was selected as BG&B's candidate in September. He lives in Highbury. [Twitter][Facebook]
• Vanessa Hudson(Animal Welfare Party) - Vanessa is the leader of the AWP, a party prioritising animal welfare and a sustainable lifestyle. She's the only one of the six candidates who lives in the constituency, and the only one without a social media account. In the last General Election Vanessa stood as MP for the neighbouring constituency of Hackney South and Shoreditch where she came fifth with 226 votes. This year the AWP have six candidates nationwide thanks to crowdfunded deposits. Vanessa's day job is as a director of commercials and factual/corporate/digital content. She also helped set up Vegan Runners, a UK-wide athletics club.
• Nick Stovold(Conservative) - Nick is Conservative Party Area Chairman for Wiltshire and Swindon, and stood in the 2017 Wiltshire council local election as Tory candidate for Westbury West (where an Independent beat him by 49 votes). He's a shipbroker with City firm Howe Robinson Partners and the father of twins. While working in London Nick lives in Tower Hamlets, but in the Poplar and Limehouse constituency nextdoor. Thus far Nick hasn't been mentioned on either the BG&B Conservative website or their Facebook account, perhaps because he was only adopted as a candidate on Monday. [Twitter]
» Wherever you are in the country, you can find out more about your General Election candidates at whocanivotefor.co.uk.
» I've also made a special Twitter list of the Bethnal Green and Bow candidates here, if you're local and would like to subscribe.
