Val Bossman: Why I’m standing to be a Labour London Assembly candidate

My name is Val Bossman and I’m standing for a place on the London Assembly. London is a great place. I was born and raised in Islington’s vibrant and multicultural borough, and I now choose to live, work and enjoy all the amazing experiences this city offers in opportunities to progress in life. 

Living within inner London, you only have to step outside to see busy streets with local markets and small family businesses and local places filled with many diverse communities neighbouring one another like a perfect pepper-pot mix. With local children centres, youth hubs, places of worship, beautiful architecture locally and across the city, monumental landscapes and – to make you really feel the multicultural diversity – the best delicious foods cultivated in many local restaurants… I simply love London.

I’m a mother of two, BAME Officer of Islington North CLP and a Unison member. I deliver education with a holistic approach to children and young people, hopefully inspiring them to be ambitious and true to their passions.  I am your average regular Londoner who loves the city and its arts and cultural heritage made richer by the diverse people that make up London.

However, I know there are serious pressures facing many Londoners who have suffered in silence for too long. I share the frustrations of Londoners on issues such as knife crime, drugs, youth unemployment, lack of educational support for those working-class children with special needs, sky-high rents and poor housing conditions. Londoners are suffering the effects of Tory austerity but are also fed up with sound-bite politicians and short-term solutions. Often, all they see is problems getting worse.

How will I help deal with these issues? I don’t claim to have all the answers but I do know that the people who make London such a great place are where the solutions can be found. Londoners are resilient, creative and progressive people. Yet often they are excluded from the top tables of decision-making. They have to live with (and pay for) the problems, though their ideas and solutions are not considered and their energy is ignored.

My motivation for running for the GLA is to challenge the decision-making processes and stand up for us Londoners so that regardless of one’s ethnicity, age, sexuality or social class we all have a say in creating a better quality of life. I will work hard to ensure City Hall and all our decision-making structures are as open and inclusive as possible to all Londoners, and that all Londoners are able to take part at every level in making our city better.

London will suffer disproportionately from the biggest global extinction threats like the climate crisis, and working-class communities are the ones that will be most affected. We need radical policies so that Londoners know their City Hall representatives are taking on the corporate elite and improving environmental regulations across all boroughs.

Knife crime is an unprecedented challenge in London. I welcome the public health approach recently announced by the mayor, Sadiq Khan, but Londoners need a Labour government – reversing Tory cuts to public services and fully funding community infrastructure and local services – to face this challenge. David Lammy’s report described how many minority communities feel the system is broken and institutional racism is still a real problem. Low self-esteem, poor mental health, high exclusion rates and youth re-offending are all much higher within the demographic of BAME, young working-class men.

As a black woman, I have seen racism get worse since the 2016 referendum and although I am a born and bred Londoner I feel I often have to justify my presence within the UK. I have also seen the pain of the Jewish community with what antisemitism has done of late within our party. As someone who has always campaigned within and outside our party against racism and tried to uphold justice, fairness and equality for all, I believe that this stain of racism needs to be addressed within our party and across society.

I am struck how just as the ‘hostile environment’ has touched the black community with many Caribbean and African migrants having issues of UK citizenship and livelihood, the same is happening now with the disenfranchising and exclusion of many EU citizens. It is becoming clearer how harmful Brexit will be and how leaving the EU will not just be a financial crisis but a catastrophic loss for all of us. I am a European, a second-generation UK citizen, and I believe in internationalism.

The common good of all Londoners endeavouring for a society that teaches the next generation about the core values to live, respect and accept one another can be achieved. This is my hope and vision for London. When growing up I recall a favourite primary school teacher saying to me that I was never the one to be standing aside and if a challenge ever came up, I would always be the one to say “why not me?”. I understand the challenges facing London today and I want to be the voice that allows all Londoners to be heard – so, “Why Not Val?”.

Full list: Labour’s London Assembly selection candidates.