Let’s end the factionalism of recent years and unite to serve the people

I feel incredibly fortunate and proud to have been selected as a Labour candidate in Crouch End ward in Haringey, north London. My grandparents fled Ukraine as Jewish refugees and supported Labour – and Labour supported them. It genuinely moves me to think about how they’d feel knowing their grandson had become a Labour candidate in the nation’s capital.

Crouch End is a fantastic part of London and I want it to be known as such. I want to bang the drum for the local community. It’s a place that’s vibrant, full of thriving independent businesses, a fantastic creative community and a place that is diverse and exciting. Crouch End is also home to a community of people who share our Labour values – a community that celebrates rather than just tolerates differences between people, a community where refugees are welcome and social justice matters. But for too long, too many people in the community have been prevented from developing an authentic connection with the Labour Party.

All too often, Haringey Labour has been in the public eye for the wrong reasons in recent years. I know from personal experience that it’s too often been the epicentre of bitter factional infighting. Only recently I’ve been the victim of coordinated smears to which I responded by calling for the party to leave factionalism behind.

Here’s the funny thing – I’ve always considered myself on the left of the party. I felt that New Labour was far too accepting of a neoliberal economic model that allowed the emergence of a financial elite increasingly separate from the rest of society. I believe the levels of inequality that have become commonplace in our society are unacceptable. I feel that allowing private interests to become increasingly entangled in our public services was a huge mistake. But the state of Haringey Labour politics in recent years has provided no space for me to talk about these issues with local members. The sad truth is that the factional nature of party politics drew a dividing line and pushed people to either side of that line with no room for compromise.

But I believe that we’re now seeing a change. Both nationally and within Haringey Labour, I sense a membership that is hungry to leave the bitter factionalism behind. And more importantly, I sense a membership that is sick of opposition, of endless motions and of holding protests when we should be holding office. I sense a membership in Haringey that is turning focus away from internal Labour politics and instead rightly focusing on our local communities and the people whose votes we need to win to make a difference.

That is exactly what myself and my fellow candidates in Crouch End are focused on. And under the local leadership of Peray Ahmet, the city-wide leadership of Sadiq Khan and the national leadership of Keir Starmer, we’re standing for a Haringey that builds council housing, tackles the triple threats of climate change, air pollution and congestion, keeps our young people safe and brings our communities together rather than dividing them.

As our membership cards say, by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone. It’s true for our communities and it’s true for our local parties. Let’s end the factionalism of the last few years and unite to serve the people. It’s our historic mission, and I know it’s the one my grandparents rallied to when this country welcomed them from the Ukraine all those years ago. How history echoes today. Let us learn the right lessons. Let us come together to fight inequality and injustice.