Edwin Northover was selected last night to stand in Leyton and Wanstead at the next general election.
He is 29, hails from Liverpool and read History at Merton College, Oxford. He is a corporate lawyer working in the City and just earlier in the month was elected to Waltham Forest Council for Larkswood ward with a majority of 1,140, securing 74% of the vote.
He said on his selection:
"I am humbled that the members have given me this chance to fight Leyton and Wanstead for the Party. Although we are in third place just behind the LibDems, I believe there is a real opportunity for us to make a mark here and I am looking forward to giving the other parties a run for their money.
"We're already off to a good start, helped by the fact that I live in the consituency, have fought two byelections in it in the last year and became a local councillor just two weeks ago... We're also being indirectly helped in our campaign by the sitting Labour MP who seems to think it is his right to spend taxpayers' money to take a second home in Colchester. Struggling families in Leyton and Wanstead are not impressed."
Leyton and Wanstead is represented by Harry Cohen, the Labour MP who recently responded to attacks on his considerable claims on allowances for a second home by saying: “I am almost certainly the most professional MP Leyton and Wanstead has ever had, and that includes Winston Churchill". He defends a notional majority of 7,253 over the Liberal Democrats, with the Conservatives starting close behind them in third place with 23% of the vote (according to the Rallings and Thasher figures).
Jonathan Isaby
