Labour Mayor candidates: ‘OBV’s hustings best to date’

Saturday’s Labour Party London Mayor candidates’ hustings, organised by Operation Black Vote and Patchwork, was a great success. All the candidates agreed that of the several hustings they had attended, including those hosted by the Evening Standard, LBC and The Guardian, Saturday’s event which concentrated on issues most relevant to London’s BME population, was the most challenging and demanding.

The candidates who were present at the hustings, held at Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton, were Diane Abbott, Tessa Jowell, Sadiq Khan, David Lammy and Christian Wolmar.

The chair, OBV’s director Simon Woolley, gave the audience the opportunity to write down the questions they wanted to put to the candidates under headings including housing and homelessness; employment and enterprise; criminal justice and policing; transport and the environment; and cultural well being.

The result was well informed and challenging questions which made the candidates address the specific issues in detail, realising that the audience was passionately concerned to know how each was going to do more for London’s BME communities which account for 45% of the capital’s population.

There was a lot of agreement among the candidates, particularly in understanding what still has to be done to reverse the increasing racial injustices and lack of opportunities. All candidates supported the need for affirmative action in areas including the police force, but also to ensure greater fairness in employment and affordable housing.

Click here to see the video of the discussion on housing in the capital. This is the first of a series of videos filmed and edited by Brother Isha, to whom many thanks.

Paul Hensby