Who wants to be Ealing and Hillingdon GLA member?

The candidates standing to represent Ealing and Hillingdon as GLA member on May 5th are:

• FRUZZA, Francesco Rossano Alberto - London Liberal Democrats
• GILHAM, Dominic - The Conservative Party Candidate
• HANS, Meena - The Green Party
• NIEORA, Alex - UK Independence Party (UKIP)
• SAHOTA, Onkar Singh - Labour Party

We have offered each of them the chance to write their candidate statement.

Dr Onkar Sahota - Labour

I arrived with my family in 1961, and first lived in Hayes in the London Borough of Hillingdon. I'm originally from the Punjab, India. My parents settled in the UK in order to provide a better future for their children, as with hundreds of other families of that generation.

My father first worked for British Airways at Heathrow Airport, as a maintenance worker, eventually establishing a local grocery business. His early experiences have instilled me with a passion for ensuring opportunities for others to succeed, as well as the value of aspiration.

I'm a practicing GP and have been a family doctor in West London since 1989, whilst maintaining GP surgeries in Hanwell and Southall, serving some 12,000 patients. Like many clinicians who have been elected to public office, I continue to practice part-time in order to retain my licence to practice.

I graduated in 1989 from Sheffield University Medical School, fulfilling my lifelong ambition. I also hold an MBA from the London Business School, having also attended the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

In addition to my work as a family doctor, I was a member of the Ealing Primary Care Trust Professional Executive Committee from 2002-2008.

From 1997 to 2000 I undertook work funded by the Department for International Development in Russia and Uzbekistan on reform of primary care, and advised the Heathrow City Regeneration Partnership on heath and community projects.

I was appointed a Justice of the Peace on the Middlesex Commission in 1990, and served as a magistrate on the Ealing Bench until my retirement in 2005. I was formerly the chair of governors at Wolf Field Primary School in Norwood Green in the late ninetis.

I'm Labour’s spokesperson for Health, chairing the London Assembly Health Committee at the Assembly.

I have a keen interest in the delivery of Crossrail and High Speed 2 within my constituency, as well as the Davies Commission and the future of Heathrow and I also sit on the Assembly’s Transport and Economy Committees.

As a regular voice on London’s radio and in the press, I'm also chair of the Save our Hospitals Ealing campaign against plans to reconfigure A&E services in North West London.

Dr Sahota's Top Five Priorities:

Health - Preventing hospital closures and campaigning for a better NHS

Health - Challenging the causes of health inequality in London

Transport – fighting for a better, not bigger Heathrow

Crime – protecting neighbourhood policing

Housing – campaigning for more affordable housing for Londoners

30th April 2016