My single mum was a nurse, who came here from Jamaica in the 1960s. I connected with my Eswatini father at 40, but he passed away before I got to meet him. I did meet my Swazi family, including my legendary Gogo (see image) in subsequent trips.

When I was four, my Mum was allocated our first Council flat. It changed our lives and I’ve had a love for Council estates ever since. I still live in one to this day, but have never exercised my Right to Buy on principle.

I turned down a scholarship to private school as an 11-year-old and went to the local comprehensive, Spencer Park. I have no regrets: the wide range of people I met there and the preparation it gave me to for the real world convinced me that the elitism of selection has no place in our school system.

My daughter grew up in Champion Hill ward and, as a parent, I saw first-hand the problems young people face - from over scrutiny on the streets, to the pressures of our school system. I believe in our young people, their spirit, their energy, their desire to build a world worth inheriting and I know we need to work with them to achieve this.

My politics evolved through my lived experience of being black and working class in Britain. As a young man, I was stopped over 100 times by the police, and I attend a depressingly large number of funerals for young men who have died too soon, due to street violence.

All this makes me who I am today. It is impossible for me to disregard the needs of Britain’s black, Asian, inner city and working-class communities because they are me, they are all around me, they are my family and friends. They shape my thinking and define my perspective. This won’t change if I’m elected as an MP.

The fight for change needs to be led by working class communities. We can’t expect others to fight on our behalf. When residents across Wandsworth were hit with huge sprinkler bills by a Tory council, I campaigned to get their voices heard and empowered residents to challenge and overrule the decision. In the face of racist policing, I organised community-led workshops on estates to raise awareness about the harmful impacts of Stop and Search in our communities, which brought together people who would usually steer clear of traditional political meetings. And I have sided with residents against developers in my role as Co-Chair of the Community Liaison Group and as a Tenants Champion, advocating to maximise social rent and council housing and challenging schemes that exacerbate gentrification. I’ve always been there to support families grieving following the deaths of their children from violent crime. I was one of the most active Councillors supporting Black Lives Matter, helping to organise a demonstration in Tooting which saw 1200 people turn up to make a stand against racism - one of the largest protests in Tooting’s history. If elected as your MP, I won’t hide away in Westminster. I will be on the front lines, listening to our community in Camberwell and Peckham and fighting alongside them for change.

I was politicised through my lived experience of being black and working class in an unequal Britain. I was stopped over 100 times by the police as a young man, so I know what life is like for young black men only too well. From the dehumanising treatment of murdered sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, to the shooting of Chris Kaba, we have seen too many times that police forces have become accustomed to exercising power unaccountably. I am a consistent opponent of police brutality and misuse of power. I believe that when we form a Labour Government, we must bring much needed reform to our criminal justice system. Systemic racism is rife throughout our institutions and impacts black people’s health, education, housing and employment. Issues from school exclusions, to climate change, zero hours contracts, and our migration system are all issues of structural racism because they disproportionately impact black and brown working class communities. I’ve spent decades fighting to expose and tackle them. I consistently speak out against all forms of discrimination, including anti-black racism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, homophobia, transphobia, ablism, misogyny and discrimination of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.

If we form a government, we will have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the way the country works. If I am elected as your MP, you can count on me to campaign relentlessly for our Party to implement the policies our communities need and deserve. Private ownership of energy, mail, water, and railways has failed everyone but a small minority. I am heartened by the Leadership’s promise of Great British Energy, a publicly-owned energy company, but we must go further. I support the TUC’s call for public ownership of the energy system, so that we can end the racket of the Big 6 and bring about a major transformation that can guarantee affordable bills for households, decent jobs and decarbonisation that is both rapid and just. We need a Green New Deal which centres public ownership, along with massive investment in renewables, green jobs and green homes. The NHS has been there for me and my family throughout my life and I will always support our fantastic nurses, doctors and NHS workers as they defend the vital principle of a publicly-owned, publicly-run healthcare service, free at the point of use. I stand for a comprehensive cradle to grave welfare state, funded by taxing the richest in our society. I have always supported workers on strike across the UK, who are fighting to improve not only their own pay and conditions, but also to raise standards for all workers. Too many people in Camberwell and Peckham are systematically denied their right to a home by a system that treats houses as financial assets, rather than places to live. It was encouraging to hear Lisa Nandy advocate for council housing at Party Conference, and to see our Mayor Sadiq Khan backing rent controls. I support a mass programme of council house building, scrapping no fault evictions and providing councils greater powers to punish rogue landlords.

I have two decades of professional experience speaking out against structural racism, as well as developing and delivering policy to address it.

• I was Chief Executive of Race on the Agenda (ROTA) from 2020 until recently.
• I ran the Secretariat for Coalition of Race Equality Orgs (CORE).
• I’m a member of the HEAR network of Equality organisations looking at ways of promoting all equalities.
• I sit on Herriot-Watt Advisory Panel on Homelessness and Race.
• I am a member of the Race & Equality sub group of the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit, looking at how to protect black & Global Majority young people in our education system and on the streets.
• I guest-edited an edition of the Institute for Public Policy Research’s Progressive Review, commissioning and editing nine articles on structural racism.
• In the 90s, I was Political Editor of The Voice, Britain’s leading black newspaper.
• I have worked for the Independent, The Guardian, The New Statesman and have written for countless other publications, always with an aim of presenting the world through a black, working-class prism.
• I have worked closely with Kick it Out, Operation Black Vote, and the Runnymede Trust, in the struggle against racism.
• I co-hosted a Channel 5 Special on Everyday Racism in 2020.
• I have given evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee about the impact of Voter ID on black and overall voter turnout.
• In 2021, I hosted an event with vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi and black medical experts to encourage black people to take up the Covid vaccine, which over 400 people attended.
• I was a director at the influential media platform Media Diversified and used this to amplify the voices of left-wing writers of colour.
• I have made over 400 media appearances as a commentator on race, class, politics and society in the last five years.

• I joined Labour in 1994, then left in 2002, in the lead up to the Iraq War.
• I re-joined the Labour Party in 2015 and was active in my home CLP, Tooting.
• I was the BAME officer of Tooting CLP and increased our black, Asian and minority ethnic representation figures by 200%.
• I was elected as a Councillor in Queenstown ward in 2018, as part of team who flipped the ward from being marginal (with one Labour and two Tory councillors) to a safe Labour ward with three Labour Councillors.
• I was then reelected in 2022, with an increased majority under new boundaries.
• In 2017, I played a key role in helping Marsha de Cordova take Battersea from the Tories. I helped her get reelected against the national trend in 2019.