Only four days to the general election on Thursday 4 July 2024. In this special issue of our newsletter we look at the candidates for the two constituencies covering Fitzrovia. I must give a huge thanks to our volunteer reporters Luca Rufo and Natallia Mudkavi for covering the election.
Please also read the election coverage in the Camden New Journal and Westminster Extra printed newspapers which are available outside Fitzrovia Community Centre, 2 Foley Street.
We’ll be back with our usual newsletter next weekend with a round up of local news, features and public consultations.
If you want to get in touch with us to tell us what you think of our reporting, have a question, or would like to contribute to Fitzrovia News please email us at news@fitzrovianews.com
— Linus Rees, editor
On Thursday 27 June candidates for the Holborn and St Pancras constituency seat took part in a climate and nature hustings at St Pancras New Church on Euston Road.
On 4 of July 2024, constituents of Holborn and St Pancras will have the opportunity to vote for one of twelve candidates to become their Member of Parliament (MP).
Tim Barnes is the Conservative candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster seat. He lives and works in the constituency and is a former councillor and cabinet member on Westminster Council who represented the West End ward.
Rajiv Sinha is the Green Party candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster and has lived in the constituency his whole life. He is the director of a human rights nonprofit in the UK and has worked on projects countering Islamophobia in the Indian diaspora.
Rachel Blake joined the Labour Party in 2003 and since 2014 she has been a councillor in Tower Hamlets, rising to the position of deputy leader in 2018. In 2022 Labour lost control of the council to Lutfer Rahman and his Aspire party, but unlike many of her colleagues Blake kept her seat and is still a serving councillor.
In mid-June I met Edward Lucas, the Liberal Democrats’ candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster Parliamentary seat. He is a former journalist, studied at the London School of Economics and is an expert in security. He is married with three children and lives in Central London.
The parliamentary seat of the Cities of London and Westminster has elected a Tory MP since its inception in the 1950 General Election, records show.
Keir Starmer chose to name Bangladesh as an example of where people needed to be flown back to — as he tried to show a tough face on illegal immigration in an election debate.
Feargal Sharkey warned that the “scam” of a privatised water industry had flooded the Thames and other UK rivers in sewage.
A new government should draw on the advice of those who really know what the state of our classrooms are like, says former children’s laureate and best-selling author Michael Rosen.
The Conservative candidate for Cities of London and Westminster has warned that Labour plans to introduce 20 per cent VAT on private school education would be a “tax on aspiration”.
