Rupa Huq will be hoping to hold the seat for Labour

Ealing Central and Acton will be one of the most hotly contested seats in the forthcoming election and with candidates now all declared the choice in this seat is between Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats.

We have asked each candidate to write their personal manifesto.

Rupa Huq hopes to hold the seat for Labour.

After a lifetime of 43 years in Ealing I was incredibly honoured to have been elected to serve the area I grew up in as MP in 2015. I was born at Queen Charlottes and went home from there to Brunswick Road. I attended Montpelier Primary then Notting Hill School with my two sisters of whom Konnie Huq went on to present “Blue Peter”. I’m no professional politician having been a university lecturer and part of my PhD was completed at Strasbourg University where I was in 1990s, a period in which I also worked part-time at the European Parliament when it was in session. I was employed for nearly 20 years as a university lecturer prior to being elected. I am author of 4 books, the most recent on the Ealing riots spawned a BBC Parliament Channel “Booktalk” programme.

I’ve spoken over 400 times in Parliament challenging both David Cameron and Theresa May on issues including Ealing Hospital and different aspects of Brexit like the uncertain status for EU nationals and rising hate crime. The potential Tory landslide which the polls predict jeopardise me as an independently minded opposition MP to challenge hard Brexit which 72% of voted against and the Tory hospital closures. Provision at Ealing (already decimated) and the world beating Charing Cross are to be further chopped, as MP I’ve been privy to the plans. We need an MP to stand up not roll over. I am a proud user of public services be it local state schools as a parent or Ealing hospital which I’ve had cause to go to as visitor almost daily since March.

Labour will protect the triple lock for pensioners, end tuition fees and increase the minimum wage to £10 an hour. Meanwhile the Tories have slashed local school budgets as well as the NHS and now plan to bring back the cruel and inhumane practice of foxhunting.  It’s little wonder that the Greens who I am aligned with on Heathrow Expansion have withdrawn from the election for me and that Sir Vince Cable, one of the nation’s senior Lib Dems has declared that there’s no point voting for that party in a seat where they are a poor third in the most marginal seat in London – Labour by just 274 votes last time in a two horse race.

After repeatedly stating for 9 months that there would be no early general election, Theresa May has gone back on her word and in a naked powergrab has decreed that the country go the polls on June 8th. Now Parliament has been dissolved and the machinery of government and even the article 50 negotiations grind to a halt for 8 weeks for the election that exposes how Tories lie and is aimed at giving them a blank cheque for Brexit and deflect from the crisis in our NHS, in schools funding and the scandal of affordable housing in London. The queue at my weekly advice surgery, ever-lengthening anyway as this government’s cruel policies bite, has nowhere to go as I’ve ceased to be MP and am a powerless candidate.

Three generations of Huqs are now in Ealing and as an MP I’ve demonstrated that I am independent-minded eg rebelling on the triggering of article 50. I will always put Ealing first. No matter how much the Tories try to scare people with Westminster scenarios I’m fighting this election on my local record and 45 years in Ealing, Acton and Chiswick. I urge voters to put their faith in me again on June 8th.

Nominated Candidates

John Ball (Liberal Democrat)

Rupa Huq ( Lab)

Joy Morrissey ( Conservative)

17th May 2017