Johnson Situ, a candidate hoping to be the next MP for Camberwell and Peckham, says Labour is “still the party of equality” and hopes a Labour government “will reflect the diversity of modern Britain”.
Raised in Peckham, and a former pupil at Oliver Goldsmith Primary School, Situ’s rise through the political ranks has been impressive.
Now aged just 34, he has been a Peckham ward councillor, occupied a Southwark cabinet position, and is now a senior advisor to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
In 2020, he was widely tipped as a strong candidate for the Southwark council leader role but lost out to Kieron Williams.
Now hoping to claim the safe parliamentary seat held by the outgoing MP Harriet Harman since 1982, Situ said: “I’m absolutely passionate about standing up for my community.
“I grew up in Camberwell and Peckham during the ‘80s and ‘90s when we saw the public services that my community relied on stripped back. Now we’re seeing history repeat itself. Quite simply I want to fight for the community.”
As a councillor, Johnson led ‘Southwark Stands Together’ a council-backed anti-racism initiative inspired by the murder of George Floyd and health inequalities exposed by the pandemic.
Rival candidate Maurice McLeod was recently removed from the process by Labour, and claimed his anti-racism campaigning had contributed to the decision. McLeod said Labour had no place for “black and brown socialists”.
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Asked if his own anti-racism campaigning proved this to be untrue, Situ said: “I have huge respect for Maurice’s work tackling racism.”
He added: “I’m quite sure that, at its core, the Labour Party is one that fights for equality and that’s why I’m standing.”
But can Labour really be the party of equality when the most senior black and ethnic minority politicians overwhelmingly represent the Tories?
In response, Situ highlighted that of the 65 minority ethnic Members, 41 (63%) are Labour and 22 are Conservatives (34%) but said that equality is something “the incoming Labour government needs to pay close attention to”.
Situ says he will be “a national campaigning MP rooted in the local community” and will be setting up a permanent constituency office, something which Harman does not have.
The News asked whether Harman’s success as an MP had been limited by not having a constituency office. Situ said: “Harriet is a really fantastic MP in championing the area and she did have constituency surgery – I helped out at a couple of constituency surgeries and she was of course ever-present in the community.”
Pressed on why it was necessary to set up a constituency office if Harriet Harman was ‘ever-present in the community’, Situ would not be drawn, saying: “I’m very much focussed that I want to do as an MP…. it’s important people get to know me and see me so that’s why I would want a local constituency office.”
As a Peckham councillor, Johnson helped create 2,000 apprenticeships paying the London Living Wage. By law, apprentices only have to be paid £4.81 per hour but this meant that trainees earned £10.90 per hour.
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Johnson says he hopes to one day become a cabinet minister, and would campaign for more housing, a better-funded NHS, and protection against climate change.
He said he would campaign for universal free child care and is in favour of bringing the minimum wage up to the living wage.
Johnson concluded by saying: ”My journey into politics has been about getting people more involved in politics. I want to champion policy at the highest level and to inspire the community I represent to get more involved in politics. I don’t want politics to be seen as for them, and not for us.”