I’M AN anti-imperialist and socialist, so those values will guide me in protecting the needs of hard-pressed transport and travel workers’ jobs, pay and terms and conditions.   

My focus will always be on the immediate industrial needs of TSSA but we can’t be parochial — there are plenty of socialist countries that we can learn from and partner with to build an international movement that mobilises behind common values such as dignity, prosperity and security of all people and tackles issues of inequality, climate and social injustice as well.  

Public transport is in my soul. My brother was born blind, and the support of TSSA station and train staff has been key to his freedom all his life, so from an early age I have been campaigning alongside him on access, staffing, investment and other transport issues.

I’ve always held TSSA in a positive light from the time I was working full time on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign hosted in the TSSA Euston offices, I got to know TSSA colleagues and was very encouraged by the union.

I had never really thought I could become a general secretary before, but TSSA members convinced me that my high-level equalities experience, work in labour movement administration, and passion for standing up for working people were the perfect fit that TSSA needs right now.

[Following the Kennedy report into sexual harassment at TSSA] I’m uniquely placed as a[n external] candidate who isn’t tarred by anything that went on and I can bring an impartial view of what needs to be done to unite the whole union post-scandal.

I’m determined that we lay the foundations for the radical organisational and cultural changes we need as swiftly as possible so we devote ourselves to delivering for our members.  

If I become general secretary, I’ll invest in our training and support for reps, to make us a leader in representation.  

I served 12 years as an elected councillor in a deprived ward in London, campaigning on quality of life issues, transport accessibility, harms emanating from gambling and of course discrimination. I’ve also been mayor of Camden for two years and used my platform to champion women’s issues and raise funds for Solace Women’s Aid.

Bringing rail contracts back into public ownership as contracts expire is a good position, but personally having seen Avanti’s contract renewed despite repeated failings, I would favour cutting short contracts and immediately nationalising and unifying our railways.

It just doesn’t make sense to me to wait until the end of their franchise contracts, we should take back our railways as soon as possible and start running them for public benefit, and with proper respect and reward for transport workers.  

We need far clearer commitment to bus services in every community if we are going to give particularly rural areas a choice of travel other than cars.

I worked closely with most of the Labour affiliated unions during my time as Head of Equalities for the Labour Party. I really admire Mick Whelan at Aslef and hope to reset TSSA’s relationship with RMT if I become general secretary. It is so good that Matt Wrack is now president of the TUC — he really understands the threat to organised labour and I have a renewed sense of optimism with him in that realm.  

It has long been clear that road haulage alone cannot meet the country’s current logistics needs, and we need a big expansion of rail freight to meet that need and reduce the environmental impact.