Elections to the European parliament will held on 23 May and voters will have the chance to select representatives who will sit in Brussels and Strasbourg for – all being well – the next five years.
Across the main parties there are six candidates with strong Newham connections.
Cllr Rohit Dasgupta (Canning Town South) is on Labour’s list for South East England. He has been a Newham councillor since May 2018 and contested the East Hampshire seat in the 2017 general election. Dr Dasgupta is secretary of Newham Fabians.
Cllr James Beckles (Custom House) is a Labour candidate in London. He has been a Newham councillor since 2014 and is currently cabinet member for Crime and Community Safety. Cllr Beckles sits on the Progress Strategy Board and is vice chair of Newham Co-operative Party.
Rachel Collinson, who is standing for the Green Party in London, was her party’s candidate in West Ham in the 2015 general election and the GLA candidate for City & East in 2016. She stood in Stratford and New Town in the 2018 local elections. She is the Green Party Business, Innovation and Skills national spokesperson.
For the Conservatives, Attic Rahman is a former chair of East Ham Conservatives. He stood in Royal Docks in the May 2018 local elections and Little Ilford in 2014.
UKIP leader Gerard Batten lives in Forest Gate. He has represented London in the European parliament since 2004. Previously he sought election to Newham council in 2002 in Forest Gate North and in 1993 Park ward, where he won just 75 votes for the Anti Federalist League.
Also standing for UKIP, in the north west of England, is former Newham councillor (2002 – 2010) Alan Craig. Craig was the leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance before defecting to his current party. He was the CPA candidate for mayor of Newham in 2002, 2006 and 2010; he stood for mayor of London for the Christian Alliance in 2008. He is UKIP’s national spokesperson for Families & Children.
UPDATE BONUS CONNECTION!
Thanks to @E7_nowandthen on Twitter for pointing out that Change UK/The Independent Group candidate Carole Tongue represented the old London East European constituency from 1984 to 1999, and this included the Newham North East parliamentary constituency (now mostly East Ham). Ms Tongue was the deputy leader of the Labour Group in the European Parliament.
The full list of party candidates for the London constituency (8 MEP seats):
Labour:
- Claude Moraes*
- Seb Dance*
- Katy Clark
- Laura Parker
- Murad Qureshi
- Taranjit Chana
- James Beckles
- Sanchia Alasia
Conservative:
- Syed Kamall*
- Dr Charles Tannock*
- Joy Morrissey
- Timothy Barnes
- Scott Pattenden
- Attic Rahman
- Kirsty Finlayson
- Luke Parker
Liberal Democrats:
- Irina Von Wiese
- Dinesh Dhamija
- Luisa Porritt
- Jonathan Fryer
- Hussain Khan
- Helen Cross
- Graham Colley
- Rabina Khan
Green Party:
- Scott Ainslie
- Gulnar Hasnain
- Shahrar Ali
- Rachel Collinson
- Eleanor Margolies
- Remco van der Stoep
- Kirsten de Keyser
- Peter Underwood
Change UK (The Independent Group):
- Gavin Esler
- Jan Vincent-Rostowski
- Carole Tongue
- Annabel Mullin
- Karen Newman
- Nora Mulready
- Jessica Simor
- (plus one TBC)
UKIP:
- Gerard Batten*
- Richard Braine
- Peter Muswell
- Freddy Vachha
- Peter McIlvenna
- Robert Stephenson
- John Poynton
- Ronie Johnson
Animal Welfare Party:
- Vanessa Hudson
- Jane Smith
- Sam Morland
- Ranjan Joshi
- Mina Da Rui
- Jon Homan
- Simon Gouldman
The Brexit Party:
- Ben Habib
- Lance Forman
- Graham Shore
- Alka Sehgal Cuthbert
- Jimi Ogunnusi
- Simon Marcus
- Mehrtash A’zami
- Aileen Quinton
UK European Union Party:
- Pierre Kirk
- Richard Stevens
- Saleyha Ahsan
- Anna Novikova
- Angela Antetomaso
- Richard Boardman
Women’s Equality Party:
- Catherine Mayer
- Bea Gare
- Nanci Hogan
- Aliyah Dunbar-Hussain
- Hannah Barham-Brown
- Alison Marshall
- Olivia Patton-Vincenti
- Leyla Mohan
Independents (not a party list – each candidate is standing on their own)
- Daze Aghaji
- Roger Hallam
- Alan Kirkby
- Kofi Klu
- Zoe Lafferty
- Claudia Mcdowell
- Andrew Medhurst
- Henry Muss
- Mike Shad
- Ian Sowden
- Andrea Venzon
* sitting MEP seeking re-election
Correction (25/04/2019): the original version of this post said James Beckles is the secretary of Newham Co-operative Party. That post is held by Cllr Neil Wilson.
Tags: European elections, newham
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