The ten candidates make their pitch for your vote

Regarded as one of the safest Labour seats in London, incumbent Stella Creasy has held her seat in 2015, 2017, and 2019. She inherited the seat from previous Labour MP Neil Gerrard in 2010. Labour have held the seat since 1992, when Neil Gerrard won it from the Conservative Hugo Summerson. 

In 2019, Creasy won with 76.1% of the vote, with the second-placed Conservative candidate trailing behind with just 12.3%. 

While Creasy is projected to keep her seat, there are nine other candidates contesting in Walthamstow, the most that have ever stood since the seat’s creation. 

Three independents are standing this year, with each having a key issue they are advocating (Ruth Rawlins; anti- abortion, Mohammed Ashfaq; Palestine, and Dan Edelstyn; renewables investment). 

Reform UK and the Workers Party are both contesting this seat for the first time, while the Green Party’s Rosalinda Rowlands and the Socialist Nancy Taaffe are standing on an explicitly left-wing platform. 

All are hoping to bite into Labour’s vote here. 

Here each of the ten candidates for Walthamstow make a pitch for your vote. They are presented alphabetically. 

Imran Arshad, Workers Party 

I am honoured to be nominated as a candidate for the Workers Party in the upcoming general elections for the constituency of Walthamstow. 

As a local resident deeply invested in our community, I am dedicated to fighting for better public services, affordable housing, good jobs, and community safety. The challenges we face are significant, but together we can build a stronger, more resilient Walthamstow. 

If elected, I will address the pressing need for high quality, affordable housing. I will work tirelessly to ensure that new developments meet the needs of all residents. 

Our public services are the backbone of our community. I will advocate for increased funding and support to ensure that our healthcare, education, and social services can meet the demands of our growing population. 

Economic stability is crucial. I am committed to promoting job creation and securing fair wages, ensuring that everyone in Walthamstow has access to secure and well-paying employment opportunities. 

Reducing crime rates and enhancing community safety are essential for a thriving neighbourhood. I will push for effective policing and robust community support programs to make our streets safer for everyone.

Our children deserve the best start in life. I will fight for adequate school funding to ensure every child has access to high-quality education and sufficient school places. 

I stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and will advocate for justice and peace in the region. 

Let’s build a stronger community together. With your support, we can create a Walthamstow that is inclusive, safe, and prosperous for all. 

Mohammed Ashfaq, Independent 

The Muslim community and I became politically homeless after the Labour Party’s reaction to the devastation and deaths being caused in Gaza as Israel “defended itself”. 

Labour’s decision to not back a ceasefire in November and Keir Starmer going on LBC radio declaring Israel has a right to withhold power and water from Gaza shocked and alienated me and the Muslim community. I am standing to give a voice to Gaza and to show Muslims there are alternatives to Labour. 

My biggest strength is that I am an independent. I can give voice to and vote freely for the people of Gaza and on domestic issues without worrying about any repercussions as I don’t have a party to answer to. I am a hardworking and dedicated person who has excellent communication skills, can work with others and can adapt to solve problems. I can relate to the voters and can lead teams with conviction and resilience. 

As MP I will be demanding an immediate unconditional permanent ceasefire in Gaza, all aid being allowed in without any restrictions in Gaza and for Hamas to free all Israeli hostages. I will push for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state as that is the best way for long term peace between Palestinians and Israelis. 

I support more funding for the NHS to cut long waiting lists and more police officers to stop crimes. I will campaign against more cuts and austerity and fight to end the two child benefits cap which is causing poverty for many families. 

Stella Creasy, Labour and Co-operative Party 

Walthamstow is my home and my priority. My family has lived here for decades, and I’m now raising my children here. 

My ambitions for our country and our community mean I am asking for your vote on 4th July. I want to make it possible for everyone who calls Walthamstow home to succeed, and my track record shows I know how to make change happen. 

We took on legal loan sharks like Wonga, and made sure women everywhere in the UK can access abortion safely and legally. We tackled gang crime and youth violence, won new protections for victims or crime and closed commercial property tax loopholes. 

We win the fights that matter to us – whether that’s saving the Butterfields Estate, securing the future of our Walthamstow Toy Library, or getting justice for Michelle Samaraweera.

If re-elected, I will work tirelessly to repair the damage that 14 years of Tory government has done to our community. 

Who works for Walthamstow in Westminster matters. I have never been afraid to speak up or stand up to be counted – whether voting for an urgent ceasefire in Israel and Gaza every time I could, fighting the damage Brexit is doing as chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, or championing leasehold reform. If those things matter to you, use your vote to show it. If you value me, vote for me. 

Dan Edelstyn, Independent 

I am a Walthamstow based filmmaker, artist, and activist. In 2022, me and my partner Hilary Powell slept on our roof for 23 days to fund the costs of installing solar panels on every house on our street. 

Now I’m running for election with Hilary as my agent. 

It’s important in these times when democratic processes are at their most visible and performative to intervene and hold those currently or imminently in power to account – to ask questions of how we imagine and make a more just society. 

It’s a chance to look beyond the sloganeering of the election cycle to what we really want in our lives and communities and put forward a demand for art and creativity, for a Green New Deal to be funded, for a just transition to be prioritised, and for education to be free and invested in. 

We, the people, lead the politicians and not the other way around. 

A big part of my decision to stand is also to call out our major parties and ineffective media systems complicity in genocide. As a Jewish person, I am explicit in my support of Palestine, and in demanding an end to genocide and Israel’s violent occupation. 

Is it a joke? Do I hope to win? I don’t expect to but that doesn’t mean I’m not serious. Art is often expected to stay in its corner – as commentary or reflection. Through my candidacy in this election I am putting forward, showing and doing an art that is not afraid to take action. Sanjana Karnani, Conservative Party 

Politics is an extension of my public service. Over the years, I have volunteered and raised thousands for charity. Making a positive difference to thousands of families has inspired me to enter politics. 

To be given the opportunity to serve and represent Walthamstow as its MP would be an enormous privilege and honour for me. 

I believe in family, our country and our shared values. I bring on board real life experiences, such as being a mother, a wife, a business owner and a grassroots campaigner. I’m a hard worker and always put everything into whatever I take on. 

I work with others to achieve win-win scenarios. As a school governor during the Covid pandemic, I collaborated with a local charity to provide upwards of 100 meals a day for school children who would otherwise have gone without food during the half-term break.

As MP, I will ensure that the new Whipps Cross Hospital is delivered for all our communities; £28 million of funding has already been agreed and confirmed. 

I will also work closely with the Met’s borough commander to reduce drug-dealing, violence, sexual offences and anti-social behaviour. 

If elected, I will champion short term free parking, which will further support local businesses and help local residents to shop locally. 

I support more cycling but I will work with local residents and the council to remove unnecessary road closures and I back new developments that will provide genuinely affordable new family homes in Walthamstow and not just tall tower blocks. 

Martin Lonergan, Reform Party 

I am a published author in political fiction and a human rights activist. An English gentleman abroad, I have travelled almost perpetually for 25 years. 

Looking from afar at the Britain of my birth, I have watched it descend into chaos and anarchy with poor leadership, never delivering promises. Now, Labour will raise taxes, stifle business and bankrupt the nation if they pick up where the Conservatives have taken us; a broken Britain. 

Nigel Farage and Brexit was one of the few times I have ever engaged in a political campaign, and I was impressed by what he achieved. He did what he said, and I believe he will again. 

There is much work to do, and the possibility of real change finally arrives with Farage and Reform UK. 

I never thought about entering politics. Still, when Marc Burca, Reform’s Kensington and Bayswater candidate, asked for my help, I felt duty-bound to take up the challenge. 

Walthamstow is considered a safe seat by Labour, so I have my work cut as the new kid on the block. However, the policies of Reform UK are the only way Britain can ever be Great Britain again. 

So, I am here for the long haul and expect to win the seat next time! Stop the boats, lower taxes and fix the NHS. 

Ruth Rawlins, Independent 

I am standing as an independent candidate in Walthamstow because I want to be a voice for the voiceless. Firstly, for the 250,000 babies who are intentionally killed in the womb each year in the UK. Secondly, for their mothers, many of whom were not fully informed of the humanity of their babies, and were offered death over help by doctors, the very people they should be able to trust. 

I have a strong track record of advocating for women and children in my day job with Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform UK.

If elected, I will serve Walthamstow as my service to God, as I endeavour to follow the greatest commandments in the bible, to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbour as yourself”. 

I believe that all humans are equally valuable and there is no such thing as a sub-human. A procedure like abortion, that is only successful when a child dies, is NOT healthcare! 

Therefore, I will fight to see that the right to life of every human is protected under law from fertilisation – when life begins. I will support women and families in challenging pregnancies, and fight for justice and reparations for mothers bereaved by abortion. The abortion industry and government should be held accountable for the 10 million innocent lives lost since 1967. 

Rosalinda Rowlands, Green Party 

‘Be the change you want to see’ is the motto that drives me. I believe that although we often feel powerless in society, we do have the power to change things for the better, especially when we work together. This is why I joined the Green Party in 2021 and I am excited to be representing the party for the first time, in my home, Walthamstow. 

I have always had family in Waltham Forest, and am now raising my children here. I am grateful for the parks, libraries, marshes, and vibrant community encompassing people from all over the world. I am ready to listen to what constituents care about most and advocate for them in parliament. 

I don’t pretend to have all the answers but I do have a lot of questions! For instance; why is there a cost-of-living crisis when we now have more billionaires than ever before? 

Why is there money for the weapons industry when our NHS is being sold off to private companies? Why do the two main political parties treat the climate crisis like a side issue when it encompasses everything essential to our health and well-being: from the water in our rivers, to the food on our plates, to the air we breathe? 

How can we trust Labour and Tory politicians when they put the agendas of their wealthy donors before the lives of innocent people being massacred in Gaza and the West Bank? 

I hope that voters will joine me in turning Walthamstow green! 

Nancy Taaffe, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) 

I’ve been a campaigner in Walthamstow for 35 years. We’ll all be glad to see the back of the Tories but Starmer won’t fight for us. 

If you feel let down by the politicians, vote for a socialist, working-class fighter instead. 

You know us. You see us on the picket lines, outside the tubes and in the market. We don’t just appear at election time.

The socialists have attempted to stop every privatisation and cut that parties of all colours have made – we are poorer because of their policies. 

We spoke out against the warmongers when others stayed silent. We led the campaign to save our square from the monster blocks, and saved the lime trees. 

I will fight to stop the slaughter in Gaza by calling for mass trade union action to stop arming the Israeli state. I will push for private profit out of our NHS and for no more cuts to jobs and services. We need more council homes and rent control, and inflation-proof pay rises and a £15-an-hour minimum wage. I also support the renationalisation of rail and Royal Mail and nationalised energy and water. 

Everyone should be able to have a home, a well-paid job, free education and health, while protecting our environment. It’s not true that there’s no money – the rich are getting richer all the time. If the system can’t afford a decent life for all, let’s change it! 

Vote TUSC to help build the fightback – because whoever wins this election, we’re going to need it.

Rebecca Taylor, Liberal Democrats 

I currently work in the health sector for a charity that works closely with NHS organisations, and have in the past worked for the NHS, a health professional body and the pharmaceutical industry. 

I am focused on health issues including medical devices, tobacco control and healthy ageing and I am a regular speaker at health industry events at Westminster and beyond. 

Having previously served as the Member of European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire, I am a strong believer in the EU project and I support the UK’s long-term re-application to the EU. I will also push for a much better Brexit deal than what we got. 

On housing, we will properly fund local planning departments to improve planning outcomes and ensure housing is not built in areas of high flood risk without adequate mitigation, by allowing local authorities to set their own fees. 

On crime and community safety, the Liberal Democrats will scrap police and crime commissioners and replace them with local police boards made up of councillors and representatives from relevant local groups, while investing the savings in frontline policing. 

Mental health is also a key part of our manifesto. We would Improve early access to mental health services by establishing mental health hubs for young people in every community and introduce regular mental health check-ups at key points in people’s lives when they are most vulnerable to mental ill-health.

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