Feltham and Heston, the parliamentary constituency of Hounslow and home to one of Britain’s largest Indian communities (a fifth of the population is of Indian origin), has been a Labour stronghold for the past 15 years. Seema Malhotra, who has represented the constituency since 2011, has won two elections with comfortable majorities. Still, there’s a renewed optimism within her team as they canvassed in Hounslow last Friday.
“People want to be connected to this election more than ever before,” said Ms. Malhotra, as polls in recent weeks have shown a dramatic rise in support for the Labour party across the country, including in some London regions that were strongholds for the Conservatives.
“There’s been a turning point since the Labour manifesto was launched: it has become apparent people feel our priorities are closer to the realities we face — whether as businesses or individuals,” she said. Support for the Conservatives took a hit following the release of the manifestos, and in particular over a proposal to extend the costs that the elderly would face for their own social care, even if they were able to remain in their own home. The huge outcry over the proposal, dubbed the “dementia tax”, led the Conservatives to pledge a cap, but they’ve struggled to rebound since.
It’s an issue that’s hit potential Conservative support within the Indian community. “I certainly feel it’s something that comes across very strongly in the Indian community — if you think about how the demographic has developed it has been one or two generations that Asians have been here so issues such as family and children financial security can be very important. You spend your life working and earning and hope to have something to pass on to your children and now you find out that might be at risk…there is a major issue of trust for the Conservative party, particularly if you combine that with issues around public services.”
Ms. Malhotra said Labour’s pledge to improve the NHS, education and other public services were resonating with the public in her constituency, pointing to the stories she had been told by constituents, such as a woman who had waited hours for an ambulance in order to be picked off the floor, or another who waited for a fortnight for a GP [general doctor] appointment or a mother whose school was asking parents to step in and help meet costs amid a funding crisis.
“[Jeremy Corbyn’s] putting things in the manifesto that people want to see,” said Sohan Singh Samra, the Vice President of the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Southall, who was out campaigning for Ms. Malhotra, and who said the party’s commitment to a new inquiry into Operation Blue Star and British involvement had also enthused the local Sikh community.
Bandna Chopra, a Councilor for Hounslow West, noted a rise in young people locally wanting to be engaged in the campaign. “They’re more active, more interested, more confident,” she said out on the campaign trail.
Alongside the surge in the polls, the election campaign has seen increasing unity within the Labour party, with some past critics expressing their support for Mr. Corbyn, over the course of the campaign, and as the manifesto that emerged reflected the views of the wider party that Mr. Corbyn had once opposed, such as renewing Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
“He’s had a very positive campaign and he has grown in his leadership and as an electoral campaigner,” said Ms. Malhotra, who resigned from Mr. Corbyn’s shadow cabinet last year, over Mr. Corbyn’s leadership. “People have seen the policies of the Labour party and that is having quite an impact in terms of changing the conservation. We are at a changing point now where we’ve seen Labour acting with tremendous unity in this campaign. The party already had strengths in different parts of the movement and if we can continue to harness that it bodes well for the different sense in which we move forward in the next Parliament. We are all in this to win power and make change happen.”
