As a recent YouGov poll projects the Greens will have the biggest vote share of all parties in Waltham Forest at next month’s local election, the Echo speaks to their candidates as they go out canvassing
By Marco Marcelline
On a sunny Friday mid-afternoon in Coppermill Lane, a trio of Green candidates standing for election say they are feeling optimistic about their chances come Thursday, 7th May.
Among the three is artist Anna Rose Kerr, who says the party has already spoken to at least 800 residents in the St James area who plan to vote Green.
St James ward is one of the Green’s main target seats in Waltham Forest; in 2022 the party came second and 463 votes short of winning a seat here.
Anna Rose says: “The mood is really positive; on our canvassing and doorknocking sessions we always meet people who say they are excited to vote for us. There’s of course a lot of undecideds but it’s less common to hear from people who say they won’t be voting for us.”
As Anna Rose attempts to knock on another door while canvassing, a passerby approaches and asks if she has any Green posters he can hang in his window.
Describing himself as a “left-wing ex-Labour voter”, Duncan Hall says he plans to vote Green this year because of Labour’s stance on asylum seekers, Palestine Action, which it proscribed as a terrorist group, and the party’s overall “right-wing” drift under leader Sir Keir Starmer.
He’s also a fan of new leader Zack Polanski, commending him for “not trying to appease the right or Reform like Labour has done”.
Duncan says: “The Labour party left me and I left the Labour party. It’s not anything like it was; the way Labour treated [former Chingford and Woodford Green Labour candidate] Faiza Shaheen, and [Greater Manchester mayor] Andy Burnham in Gorton and Denton was terrible. I can’t see myself voting for them again.”
Meanwhile, another Coppermill Lane resident, who didn’t share her name, says she will be voting Green in May because she was “disappointed” in Labour, who had “made it difficult for immigrants”.
Green candidate Martin Edobor, a GP who has spent years working on health inequality in East London, chimes in saying: “Labour’s rhetoric around immigration is awful. They’ve punched down on asylum seekers and pensioners [through scrapping of winter fuel payments]. Labour has moved so far away from its original values.”
Just one of the ten residents who open their doors during the hour I spend with the Greens says they will be voting Labour in May.
When asked what Labour council actions he was in favour of Simon takes a long pause before saying he was appreciative of their aim to cut car use through the implementation of low-traffic-neighbourhoods.
A keen walker, Simon says he is “less keen” on Labour’s record on climate nationally, pointing out they had abandoned various promises on cutting carbon and on investing in green projects.
Waltham Forest Labour has accused the Greens of “having no plans to build homes, only to oppose them”.
St James candidate David Berrie, who works in children’s mental health as an art psychotherapist, slams Labour’s line, saying: “We want actually affordable housing – when you look at what Labour are approving it’s appalling – how did the Eades project [Walthamstow Mall] get approved? We should have social housing going up – not luxury apartments.”
The trio then encounter undecided voter and new mum Stephanie Rew who admits she hadn’t any time to look at what each party was offering yet but that she was “split in the middle between Labour and the Greens”.
Another undecided voter is Tony Martin. The 66-year-old former council-worker tells Anna Rose he was facing a court battle with the council who wanted to repossess his council home after his mother died.
“I don’t think what they’re doing is fair – do you? I worked for the council from 1978 to 1999 and this is how I get treated? I used to be a Labour voter but I’m not sure I will vote for them anymore.”
Read our interviews with each party standing in the election and find out their manifesto by reading our May issue – find out where to pick up a copy here
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