• I JOINED the Labour Party in 1959 and remained an active member until I was driven out by Militant in Manchester in 1983.

Since then, as I moved about, I have voted, often after considerable hesitation, for whichever candidate has seemed best placed to sustain the values of equality of opportunity to which I subscribe.

On this occasion, here in Hampstead & Kilburn, I have no hesitation. Theresa May’s principal cheerleader, the editor of the Daily Mail, has made it entirely clear that judges are the “enemies of the people” and that dissenters are “saboteurs” who must be “crushed”.

There are many people in this constituency whose families suffered, often grievously, at the hands of Hitler or Stalin, who know just what these words can mean. And if all this seems a very long time ago, look today at Putin’s Russia or Erdogan’s Turkey. To me, the need to prevent a landslide outweighs all other consideration.

The Conservatives will in all likelihood win this election, but here in Hampstead & Kilburn, we have a chance to limit just a little the absolute power which the party and its press barons crave. I have the same misgivings about parts of the Labour manifesto as I had about Michael Foot’s in 1983. (For Militant read Momentum).

But in Tulip Siddiq, I recognise a woman of principle, who has stood up for the views of her constituents, for example over Brexit, and has also helped, to my personal knowledge, many individuals in our area. She is the only chance we have to show that, for us, the rule of law and the right to dissent are not in the gift of a single party, let alone that of the editor of the Daily Mail. She deserves our support.

MARTIN HARRIS
Priory Road, NW6