I have previously served as a branch chair and secretary and Tottenham Constituency Labour Party (CLP)’s BAME Officer. Comrades asked me to throw my hat in the ring to be the vice chair with responsibility for campaigning. My opponent was a councillor colleague who had previously run as a parliamentary candidate. In my pitch to the party members at the AGM on 11 March 2021, I stated that I will not only coordinate election campaigns, I will also spearhead campaigns for nurses’ pay, renationalisation of the NHS, right to food as a human right, social housing and so on. I said that I will organise campaigns to stand shoulder to shoulder with trade unions, because the Labour Party is the product of the union movement.
Traditionally, vice chairs with responsibility for campaigning would coordinate various election campaigns. Of course, I will organise to ensure that we re-elect Sadiq Khan and a majority of Labour GLA members across London in May 2021. After that, I will oversee our election campaign to elect Labour Councillors at the 2022 local election.
At the heart of any campaign has to be to retain the current Labour administration in Haringey which is socialist. It is a bucking the trend nationally by building a thousand council homes during its term in office. These will be council homes at council rent. Not ‘affordable’ rent or another type of product. I grew up in council housing and believe that the right to housing is a human right. When people have security of tenure – secure in the knowledge that they have a roof over their head – they do not become alienated from the rest of society. Their children can flourish in school, university or in their chosen vocation.
After Tottenham Labour members voted online, ballots closed at 5pm on 12 March 2021. I was elected with 81 votes and my contender received 70 votes. I have much work to do in order to deliver on my promise. I look forward to working with the rest of the executive committee.
Cllr Khaled Moyeed 