General election parliamentary candidates for Leyton and Wanstead

Here are your parliamentary candidates for Leyton and Wanstead.

Labour – John Cryer

The country is going to the polls again.

Despite Brexit dominating, general elections are about many different issues. The winning party will govern for the next five years and with responsibility for health, education, rights at work, transport and more.

Nevertheless, Labour is the only major national party pledging a second referendum, with an option to remain. Even as a Eurosceptic, the deadlock and division since 2016 has convinced me that the only way for us to come back together as a country is to ask the public to vote again.

Johnson’s Brexit proposals pose a unique threat to our NHS, which the Trump administration is currently eyeing like a pig on a spit. Labour would reverse privatisations in the health service and restore confidence in our most precious institution.

Only Labour is committed to tackling the climate emergency with our plans for a green industrial revolution.

Labour will back the police to do their job. Too many times this year I have had to ask the Home Secretary to set out the government’s strategy to address knife crime and it has been clear that they have no answer. Cuts to police numbers have made it impossible for them to do their job and deter knife crime.

As well as supporting this agenda I will continue working on issues that matter to you. I have been fighting with local campaigners on issues like City Airport expansion, Whipps Cross hospital, step free access at stations and more. I successfully argued to delay the rollout of Universal Credit locally.

This zombie Tory government is too stymied by its inability to resolve Brexit to deliver any legislation at all. I hope that you will place your faith in me and Labour to move forward with an agenda for real change.

Conservatives – Noshaba Khiljee

My name is Dr Noshaba Khiljee, I am an NHS consultant and the Conservative Party candidate for Leyton and Wanstead.

I was raised in Walthamstow and have many friends and family in the Leyton and Wanstead area. I understand that there are a number of issues that voters in Leyton and Wanstead are concerned about.

More than three years after the referendum result the country needs to be able to move on. A Conservative majority government will implement the new deal negotiated with the EU, and we can then fully focus on our agenda for improving people’s lives.

I am a practising NHS consultant and fully committed to the principles and values of the NHS. I understand the challenges the NHS faces, but am sure it will continue to deliver world-class healthcare. I will be a strong advocate to protect NHS patients and staff and am pleased to hear Whipps Cross hospital has been awarded £400 million for redevelopment.

Our area has sadly been in the news for the wrong reasons. Our residents have a right to feel safe when they go out in the street. I promise to fight for our fair share of the 20,000 extra police officers being recruited under the next Conservative government.

I attended school locally and understand how much our residents’ value their children’s education. Every child in our community deserves a good education and that starts with investing more in schools as promised by the next Conservative government.

I have a long-term disabled mother and brother. I know how crucial it is to provide the social care required to look after our most vulnerable residents and how frustrating it can be to access these services. I will strongly advocate for a fairer system of social care in a Conservative government.

Liberal Democrats – Benjamin Sims

Our politics is broken.

The Conservative party has abandoned any claim to economic competence for an ever-harder Brexit. The Labour party spend their time squabbling rather than opposing a Brexit that would do untold damage our communities.

Both are stuck in the past, failing time and again to deliver a better future. Re-electing a Brexit-backing, Corbyn-supporting Labour MP means more of the same. Thankfully, things are changing. In May, the Liberal Democrats won the European Elections in London. We can stop Brexit, and use the £50 billion Remain bonus to rebuild our country.

Once Brexit is stopped, my number one priority will be the climate emergency. We will generate 80 per cent of our electricity from renewables by 2030, and commit to insulating all low-income homes by 2035.

I will lead the fight against the ridiculous plans to expand London City: it is senseless to inflict noise and air pollution across east London for the benefit of the very few that use the airport.

I will continue to oppose school cuts: we will make sure that every child has the best start in life by recruiting 20,000 more teachers and committing an extra £10 billion a year to our schools.

If you elect me as your MP, I will listen to you on the issues that matter. I'm not a career politician: I run a small business. I can bring the skills and ideas of the real world to Parliament: we need solutions fit for the 21st century, not tired slogans. I will be Leyton and Wanstead’s representative at Westminster, not Westminster’s representative in Leyton and Wanstead. On December 12, don't vote for more of the same. Vote for me to stop Brexit and build a brighter future.

Green Party – Ashley Gunstock

I am married with a twenty-one-year-old-son and have lived in the Leyton and Wanstead constituency since 1998. I am a professional actor and run my own theatre company, Poetic Justice Productions, a teacher of English and drama and a qualified Football Association coach.

I joined the Greens in 1989 and have since campaigned on a wide range of issues and associating with Friends of the Earth, peace, anti-fascist, Fairtrade, homeless and planning groups has enabled me to get the green message across.

Living in the constituency for 20 years I also feel connected with its residents, via my links with local schools and football clubs, as well as its demographic and political landscape.

I am putting myself forward to stand in Leyton and Wanstead again because I feel that by keeping the continuity of the profile we have and building on the support thereby gained we will further be able to hold the other parties to account. I think that it is about time that we are more on the offensive regarding the awful lack of any integrity of all of the other parties. And I am very much up for the fight to do so!

Brexit Party – Zulf Jannaty

Born and raised in east London I have never previously been a member of a political party and I am honoured to have been selected as the Brexit Party parliamentary candidate for the constituency of Leyton and Wanstead, where I have lived for decades with my family.

Husband to a Spanish national and father of dual-national children, I feel there is absolutely no contradiction between having a positive international outlook and wanting the UK to be independent and free of undemocratic EU political rule.

Like many, I believe that the politics and the established parties of yesterday are no longer fit to serve us. I joined The Brexit Party to help overhaul not just our relationship with the EU, but also the relationship between us the people and those who are meant to represent us.

This is all part of rebuilding our democratic foundations and delivering electoral reform so that parliament and government serve us all, whatever our backgrounds and lifestyles and across all generations. To do this we must first see the largest democratic referendum result, for Brexit, delivered. It is a matter of trust and democracy.

As a local resident in Leyton and Wanstead, I want to fight for an economy that lets us all build successful lives but also takes care of those of us who do need help. This means the very best in healthcare, education, social services and safe streets for our families.

On December 12, we all have a rare and unique opportunity to start rebuilding our politics for the better and I look forward to working with fellow constituents to do just that.

Independent – Henry Scott

Henry turned 18 in November and grew up in Leytonstone.

I remember being in my politics lesson and our teacher said: ‘Henry, now that you’re eighteen, are you looking forward to voting in your first election?’, and I replied that I wasn’t sure I wanted to vote for any of the current main parties. As I went home I realised that I wanted a candidate who would represent the views and wishes of myself and other people like me, not the wishes of the main party and their leadership. I thought, ‘Well, if I’m old enough to vote, am I old enough to stand as a candidate? And it turned out that I was.

I was raised in Leytonstone and I really love the area and am still involved. As a kid I went on many adventures and bike-riding on the flats and in Wanstead Park - it’s a favourite dog-walking spot of mine and I really enjoyed the Tea Hut there; I love our High Street in Leytonstone because it’s always busy and bustling with very friendly shopkeepers; and I have many friends through St John’s church. I would now like to give something back to the people who made my upbringing possible and who brought me to where I am today.

I have four main concerns – I think Barts Trust have been treating our Whipps Cross hospital very badly and I want to campaign tirelessly for better funding and to take Whipps Cross into its own trust; I want to stop Brexit; I want to prevent a climate catastrophe; and I want to get more funding for music, drama and the arts in our Leyton and Wanstead schools. In doing all this I hope to be a voice for youth in parliament and I will, of course, do my very best for other concerns my Leyton and Wanstead constituents might have.