Harrow East and Harrow West constituencies

Labour candidates for the constituencies are from Harrow and have a long track record of interest in local issues and services – both were Harrow Councillors.
Gareth Thomas is seeking re-election from Harrow West.  Navin Shah, a London Assembly member for Brent and Harrow, is contesting the Harrow East seat, challenging Bob Blackman who he defeated at a previous London Assembly election.
The Labour candidates are committed to deal with the Tory government inflicted crisis that has serious  implications for Harrow in NHS, schools and police – like the impact of 400m cut in London police funding, 15m cut to Harrow schools and lowest level  of NHS funding per person in Harrow, threatening the local hospital and walk-in health centres; for example, the hospitals have to seek funding approval, sometimes unsuccessfully, from the starving Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group for many treatments/ operations.
At the national level, the Labour has pledged for creating more jobs, building new homes, stronger employment rights, a new national education service to benefit all, increased local and regional democracy, as well as to ensure that the human rights of all citizens are respected so that all are protected from discrimination/ prejudice.
On the other hand, the Tory candidates for the constituencies are from outside Harrow, and have little to offer which could benefit all in Harrow.
Bob Blackman (photo) , for Harrow East, prints a log of his attendance as MP at socio-cultural events and at his so called ’street surgeries’ which are no more than political door knocking by Tory party members for which he most probably claims mileage ( Mirror reported that the MP was ordered to repay more than £1,000 in wrongly-claimed mileage).
He talks about national matters like the employment figures, living wage and school expansion programme as if these are his doings!
Hannah David, for Harrow West, almost deserted Harrow after 2015 defeat, except that  “Hannah was delighted to rally the troops today in support of Conservative Mayoral Candidate, Zac Goldsmith” – the Goldsmith campaign was worst racist campaign in recent times. It is the experience like this type of negativity that made the clergy to sermon against divisiveness.
Hannah David has nothing really to offer except to send “Theresa May back to Downing Street”.
Also, Hannah David’s Asiatic image is over-shadowed by the Harrow East Tories divisive politics (1) (2) .
Added to all this, an ineffective Tory opposition group on the council does not give  a positive picture of Tory politics in Harrow.
At the national level, Brexit set to dominate the Tory election campaign strategy – for example, guarantees to end free movement of EU citizens, to leave the European single market and to end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, broadly matching UKIP agenda.
Very interesting that far right are attracted to UKIP and now UKIP voters are attracted to Tories as confirmed by the council election 2017 results.
Theresa May’s claim that she will be strengthened in the Brexit talks by a general election victory has been dismissed as nonsense by the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator, former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, who has condemned the prime minister as a “political opportunist”.

Hurriedly put together, Tory campaign is jittery.
Very difficult for Bob Blackman to put aside his defeat by Navin Shah who is third term re-elected London assembly member for Brent and Harrow – was first elected in 2008 beating Tory member Bob Blackman.
Also, the Hindu card played by Tories at the last general election is not likely to help their campaign this time as the Labour candidate Navin Shah, an accomplished politician, is a prominent part of and well known in the “Hindu”/ “Gujarati” community that has been targeted by Tories.

Mr Shah (photo) is previous Harrow councillor and the leader of the council.
Navin Shah might not have the same access to the temple membership telephone list but he played crucial part in building these temples in Harrow and around.
Referring to 2015 Harrow East Tory campaign, fortnightly columnist at Hindustan Times Sunny Hundal‏ tweeted, “This is astonishing. Tory MP in London playing Hindu divide-and-rule caste politics with leaflets for Hindus. Nasty”.
Thousands of leaflets were distributed urging people to vote Tory so that legislation outlawing caste discrimination could be blocked.
Inclusion or equal opportunities is not an obvious part of Mr Blackman politics – for example:
Black members of the Tory party reported Mr Blackman, the local London Assembly member and leader of the Tory group on Brent council at the time, of treating them in an “insensitive and unsympathetic” way.
The MP was questioned about employing his wife with no regards to equal opportunities.
Describing the Harrow Tories’ “unashamedly religiously divisive” tactics at the last general election, the then Labour candidate for Harrow East Uma Kumaran said they “really brought the worst politics of the sub-continent into our general election campaign”.
“Sinking to those depths certainly left divisions in Harrow – you can’t claim to represent everyone if that’s how you win” she stated.

Bob Blackman: sitting Tory MP for Harrow East.  Major concern: ‘could he be trusted’, because of:
Divisive politics – he was elected to represent all his constituents on equal footing but being insecure in the marginal constituency and having calculated his votes, he takes sides in otherwise harmonious communities – his ploy has been rejected by the leaders of the community concerned.
Mirror reported that the MP was ordered to repay more than £1,000 in wrongly-claimed mileage.
The MP was questioned about employing his wife with no regards to equal opportunities.
All this, along with an ineffective Tory opposition group on the council, does not give a positive picture of Tory politics in Harrow.
Navin Shah: a community orientated local Labour candidate who is well committed to equal opportunities and has long track record of serving and representing all.
He is third term re-elected London assembly member for Brent and Harrow – was first elected in 2008 beating Tory member Bob Blackman. He is previous Harrow councillor and the leader of the council.
Mr Shah’s particular interests are planning, regeneration, housing, environment and community cohesion.
Mr Shah, a campaigner for step-free access to local stations, welcomed the London Mayor announcement that Harrow-on-the-Hill station will be made step-free, after former mayor Boris Johnson halted the plans.
Adam Bernard: a Liberal Democrat campaigner for 20 years who was born and brought up in Edgware, and now lives in Harrow. He is a researcher at Queen Mary University of London.
He says that if elected, he will represent everyone living in Harrow East. He opposes government cuts that are threatening Harrow’s schools, hospitals, and social care.
“Above all I will always listen to the people of Harrow East and make every decision with their best interests at heart” he said.

Context: 
General election on 8 June is very different in many ways:
As far as the Labour is concerned, social justice is high on the agenda, replacing the Blair era with people’s leadership as Theresa May acknowledged at the last PM question time, “I lead the country, you (Jeremy Corbyn) lead protests” – the protests not only involve working class people now but essentially the middle class professionals who challenge the arrogant ruling class policies and practices. This renders Jeremy Corbyn people’s leader, an alien concept for some.
The public mood is also to reject Trump and UKIP ideology.
On the Tory side, Theresa May gives a sense of a ‘presidential election’ as she asserts, “Every vote cast for the Conservatives will strengthen my hand in the Brexit negotiations” and that “The choice facing people at this election is clear – strong and stable leadership with me”!
Gareth Thomas: sitting MP since 1997, Mr Thomas is a local man – was born and educated in Harrow as well as he was a Harrow councillor. He held ministerial and shadow ministerial positions.
He supported Tony Blair’s deception about ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and voted for Iraq war!
He initially increased his majority but at the 2015 general election Tory candidate Hannah David produced a swing from Labour to the Conservatives, reducing Gareth Thomas majority to 2,208. Many say  voters wanted a fresh and warm representative (he was MP for eighteen years then).
Mr Thomas supported Liz Kendall for the Labour leadership. He voted for the Cameron motion to bomb Syria despite strong public protest and the Labour leader voting against – even some Tory MPs, including David Davis, voted against!
Mr Thomas has not really denounced Trump/ UKIP far right ideology.
Therefore, it is not obvious how well Mr Thomas fits within the Labour era of social justice under Jeremy Corbyn leadership!
Hannah David: a well resourced and somewhat humble looking outsider Hannah David was praised by her party for achieving a 5.2% swing to the Conservatives in 2015.
She managed to bring Tory hierarchy to Harrow, including the then prime minister, home secretary and London mayor. But her chances were not helped by the boorish Tory group on the council! This election, there is not enough time for the group to spoil her chances.
After the 2015 election, Hannah David left Harrow to progress her career and is now National Director of the Conservative Policy Forum.
She has remained active in the Conservative Friends of Israel.
Kenton East by-election outcome shows the merit of the Tories accessing temple devotees for votes, and they are most likely to repeat this at the constituency level.
There is nothing specific that Hannah David could offer to Harrow, except the party rhetoric.
Mr Thomas has some time to give a sense of humble, down to earth and social justice approach towards local, national and international situations, respecting the aspirations and changed mood of the public, especially the majority of the people in the Labour party.
If both Hannah David and Gareth Thomas practise the same middle ground politics, then why should people vote for Mr Thomas or even bother to come out to vote?

The Mirror reports today that Tory party donors are handed NHS contracts worth £1.5billion under health reforms, naming many donors including And Care UK that has contracts worth another £102.6million. Its chairman John Nash was made a peer after boosting Tory coffers by £247,250, the newspaper informs.
“Nobody gave David Cameron ­permission to sell the NHS to his friends” commented Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham.
“It’s shocking the same Tory donors who ­bankrolled the development of their NHS reorganisation policy are now ­profiting from the sell-off of NHS services” he added.
Underfunding and then privatisation of NHS is a prime national concern, including in Harrow, because “private companies taking over NHS from inside leads to higher cost and fragmented poorer quality care which must be resisted” pointed out  a doctor speaker at the recent 250,000 strong, ‘Save our NHS’  demonstration  in London.
Addressing the demo, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said “Our NHS is not in crisis because of overspending but is in crisis because of underfunding”.
Mr Corbyn said, “Things have come about because of political choice to underfund the NHS and social care when they know full well that resources are there to do it”.
“Theresa May couldn’t wait to get to discuss UK trade agreement with Trump” he said and warned “Our NHS is not for sale”.

As expected temple orientated Tory candidate Nitesh Hirani won Kenton East by-election.
He received 1,585 votes ahead of 1,328 votes for Labour’s Nishit Patel, 65 votes for Liberal Democrat Annabel Croft and 54 votes for UKIP’s Herbert Crossman.
The number of votes, 3051 i.e. 37% turnout, indicate good level of interest in this by-election which helped personalised votes.
The Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) taking over campaign for Kenton East by-election, committing tremendous resources where Lizzie Lumley, Campaign Director for London, and Bob Blackman MP for Harrow East energetically worked for the party political gains – worked.
MP Bob Blackman’s reported divisive card that he speaks on behalf of his “Gujarati”/ “Hindu” constituents in international disputes as well as his individualised letters to certain residents – also worked.
It does not look that Tory interest is in the local residents or issues but obviously to use this  favourable outcome of the by-election as a national barometer to rubbish Labour leadership and use it to point score at the United Kingdom local elections next month, and general election in June.

It is unbelievable that Tory high ranking officer Lizzie Lumley, Campaign Director for London, didn’t know Theresa May’s political reversal about early poll.
Therefore, no surprise that the Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) has taken over campaign for Kenton East by-election, committing tremendous resources where Lizzie Lumley and Bob Blackman MP for Harrow East are energetically driving the campaign for the party political gains.
We have previously reported Bob Blackman’s divisive statement that he speaks on behalf of his “Gujarati”/ “Hindu” constituents in international disputes, as well as his individualised letters to certain residents.
How does all this help Kenton East residents or issues?
Moreover, if elected, inexperienced Tory candidate quietly sitting in the opposition Tory group on the council, tightly controlled by its vindictive leadership, is most likely to be ineffective in representing Kenton East.
Tory group has lost the councils in 2010 and 2014 and three by-elections, under Cllr Hall’s leadership.

Nothing unusual about political party headquarters supporting a constituency by-election, but it is highly usual to almost take over campaign for a ward by-election as the Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) has done in the case of Kenton East by-election.
Both Lizzie Lumley, Tory Campaign Director for London, and Bob Blackman MP for Harrow East are energetically driving the campaign for the party political gains.

We have previously reported Bob Blackman’s  divisive statement that he speaks on behalf of his “Gujarati”/ “Hindu” constituents in international disputes, as well as his individualised letters to certain residents.
The CCHQ interest is obviously to use a favourable outcome of the Kenton East by-election to rubbish Labour leadership and point score at the United Kingdom local elections next month.
How does this, along with the following, help Kenton East residents or issues?
If elected, inexperienced Tory candidate sitting in the opposition Tory group on the council, tightly controlled by its vindictive leadership, is most likely to be ineffective in representing Kenton East.
Tory group has lost the councils in 2010 and 2014 and three by-elections, under Cllr Hall’s leadership.
People rightly say that the opposition Tory  group under its politically immature leadership can’t be taken seriously, for example the group failed to present a shadow budget at the Council meeting to enrich the financial decision making – they owed this to the residents…. read more by clicking here
Added to this is Cllr Hall’s concerning conduct at the council meetings and childish social media encounters.