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Left List’s Lindsay German with Mukul Hira in May |
Will ‘working-class Hira’ keep voters’ respect after defection?
Lib Dems boosted by new blood, but Labour say switch shows a ‘lack of principle’
A FORMER candidate for Respect, the left-wing anti-war coalition party, who netted nearly 800 votes in Somers Town at the last council elections, has defended his decision to join the Liberal Democrats in a surprise defection.
Prolific letter writer Nuruzzaman ‘Mukul’ Hira confirmed his switch on Monday after being confronted by the New Journal. He is thought to be considered a potential future councillor in his new party.
An announcement about his switch was planned for later this year, with the Lib Dems confident they could unveil other new faces to their ranks at the same time.
Mr Hira, who runs a shop with his father in Chalton Street, Somers Town, was instantly warned that he risked losing local support by switching sides and was accused of lacking principles.
Labour deputy leader Councillor Nash Ali said: “You can’t be taken seriously if you keep changing your mind. People will not follow him.”
Mr Hira said: “I have listened to what Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats are saying and it feels right. There are more Lib Dems than you think in Somers Town. Not just one, two or ten. People have seen that Labour has not worked for them.”
Mr Hira gave Labour councillors in Somers Town a minor scare when he stood for Respect in the 2006 boroughwide elections and won 781 votes, a healthy return for a non-mainstream party.
But the ward turned out to be one of the few areas where Labour’s vote increased.
Then, as recently as May, Mr Hira stood for The Left List, a breakaway group from Respect, in the London elections. At the time, he was insisting only one party truly represented the working classes.
He said: “I didn’t realise what was going on with The Left List and by the time I did, my name was on the form and I couldn’t back out.”
He said he didn’t believe that splits in the coalition could be healed and cited defections away from Respect in Tower Hamlets as proof that the group was broken.
At one time Mr Hira was a Labour supporter but lost faith in the party, and after the Iraq War went on to write a string of strident attacks against the government – often in the form of letters to the New Journal. Other attacks were levelled at the current administration in Camden (see above).
But few would now expect him to be missing from the Lib Dem candidates’ list at future elections, as even Labour admits he has a level of influence among Asian communities in the south of the borough.
Mr Hira was coy about whether he wanted to stand, answering only: “I don’t know if they will pick me or if I meet their requirements.”
Mr Hira, however, has spent the past few weeks attending Lib Dem meetings, conferring with established members, and will work with his new colleagues on parliamentary candidate Jo Shaw’s attempt to unseat the long-standing Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson.
Even if Ms Shaw fails to win, a substantial dent in Mr Dobson’s majority would make his seat a prime target for future elections in the same way that Glenda Jackson’s Hampstead and Kilburn seat has slowly become a realistic target for rivals.
Ms Shaw said on Tuesday morning that she had met Mr Hira a year ago and thought “it was a shame that Mukul wasn’t a Lib Dem”.
She added: “With Labour imploding and the Conservatives exiting Camden with increasing frequency it isn’t surprising that Mukul has chosen to join the Liberal Democrats – the political party on the up across north London. Mukul’s commitment to social justice, civil liberties and strong communities means he will find a warm welcome in the Liberal Democrats.”
But when asked why Mr Hira had signed a petition against much-contested Lib Dem policy of transferring Frank Barnes School from Swiss Cottage onto the same site of Edith Neville Primary School in Somers Town, she added: “I think there has been a lot of misinformation and maybe that was a part of that.”
Yet Mr Hira has signed up to a party that has begun selling off council homes to raise funds and attracted an independent sponsor for its new academy school rather than creating a traditional comprehensive – both of these are political choices that do not sit easy with Mr Hira’s former party or even his own words.
He said: “If you look at academies, these were brought in by the New Labour government. It wasn’t the Lib Dems who brought them in.”
Labour members warned that Mr Hira’s change of heart showed that he was dithering.
Cllr Ali said: “We would never accept somebody like that. He has shown he is has no principles. He has already been in four parties. He supported Labour, then Respect, then Left List and then the Lib Dems.
“You know which party you should be in because of the principles a party has – he has shown he hasn’t got any. He is just going where he thinks the power is – he has seen the Lib Dems are in and has gone there.”
He said he did not fear other community leaders from ethnic minority groups would follow Mr Hira’s example.
“The Bengali communities in the south have always been supportive of Labour because they know what we have done for them and how the others would let them down.” |
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