The Liberal Democrat party has chosen Amna Ahmad as its candidate to stand for Chuka Umunna’s Parliamentary seat in next year’s general election.
Ahmad, who grew up in south London and lives on Brixton Hill, will fight to be elected as MP for Streatham.
Umunna, who currently holds the seat, has risen up the Labour Party ranks since being elected in 2010 and is now the party’s shadow business secretary.
Ahmad, who stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate for a council seat in the Tulse Hill by-election last summer but lost out to Labour’s Mary Atkins, was chosen as a prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) in a ballot of party members.
She said: “I have a first-hand understanding of the issues affecting our area – including housing, transport and the economy – because they are the same issues which have affected me and my family over the years.
“Local people deserve a local MP who will really work to build a stronger economy and a fairer society. As your candidate I will do just that.”
Unumma won the seat in 2010’s general election with 3,259 more votes than Liberal Democrat Chris Nicholson, winning 42.8% of the vote compared with the Nicholson’s 35.8%.
The next election is due to be held on 7 May 2015. The Streatham constituency runs from the town hall in Brixton down to Streatham Vale and across as far as Clapham Common.
Mr Umunna is a very pleasant man. I have met him several times. However, he is also a close adviser to Edward Miliband. He is not Prime Ministerial material, he appears weak, he has been repeatedly wrong on the economy and is in the pocket of the Trades Unions. All of these things count against him in the extreme—by association they also count against Mr Umunna.
I will not vote for Mr Umunna—I shall vote for this Liberal Democrat candidate. I say this as someone who recognises the great importance of a strong Labour Party; but what Labour requires is a wholesale clear-out of the disgraceful remnants who still infest its benches and who were respsonsible for both the fiscal disaster that has enveloped us since the crash and Iraq.
Only after a large scale clear-out could any decent person even consider going anywhere near the Labour Party again. They remain a party of the guilty and of the disgraced.
The last time the Liberal Democrats fought this seat back in 2010 they were on a high nationally and coupled with the change in the Labour candidate the personal vote that the previous MP enjoyed was also eaten into. Yet still they did not manage a majority to secure this seat. Here we are nearing the next election and Mr Unumma has shown himself to be a good local campaigning MP. The Liberal Democrats have seen their high in the polls slowly ebb away down to around 8 or 9%. This is partly because of their coalition with the Tories but also their betrayal to the electorate mainly over tution fees, top rate of income tax and NHS reforms for which there was no real need. At least this young lady is engaging in politics, however it appears that the outcome will be a very different one at the ballot box for the Liberal Democrats than that which they secured in 2010. I note with with interest the article mentions housing, lets not forget that it was this Government of which the Liberal Democrats play a part that introduced the wholly unfair bedroom tax. This whilst doing little or nothing about those who occupy or own mansions and vast estates worth millions.