Jas Athwal, the newly-elected MP for Ilford South, owns 15 rental flats, but some tenants have claimed they regularly have to clean their bathroom ceilings to remove mould.
In an investigation first reported by the BBC, one tenant in a block of seven flats in Seven Kings, Redbridge, said “there are ants everywhere” including on their child’s body and clothes.
Responding to the investigation, Mr Athwal said he was “shocked” to hear of the reported condition of his properties, adding that they were managed by an agency which did not communicate any problems back to him.
Formerly the leader of Redbridge Council, Mr Athwal is also required to have a selective property licence in order to rent out the block of seven flats - a system he introduced in 2017 when he was in charge of the council.
It comes after the BBC found the council’s public licence register indicated that none of the seven properties had a licence.
So how do you stand for election with no income for months on end?
One option is to publicly fund candidates equally. In such a system someone could apply to run for a position, the position would require a specified amount of people to nominate that person, if that person is nominated they get a grant that covers their campaign costs. The amount wouldn’t be excessive so campaigns would look very different than they do now in places like the US.
Another option is to limit campaign donations from any individual to $100 total. This would force politicians to put effort into building a grassroots campaign while keeping big moneyed interests out of the process.
When politicians get into a position of power, they should be paid enough that they’re firmly in the upper middle class, so they’re comfortable and less likely to accept bribes, and they should not be given any opportunity to accept bribes or profit off of their position in any way.
It’s not campaign costs that are the issue. You’re working full time on a campaign, you really have to quit or take six weeks off with your boss being ok with you never coming back.
Many people work jobs where this would be seen as a great thing for the firm, many do not
Potentially losing your job would be part of the risk/sacrifice a potential candidate would have to accept. Yes, it would be difficult for someone living paycheck to paycheck to do this. Ideally, election reform like this would go hand in hand with economic reform that leads us to a society in which much less people are living paycheck to paycheck. This could happen easily if we start electing real people instead of rich people only.