Andy Walker is the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition candidate for the Havering & Redbridge constituency in this month’s London Assembly election. Here’s why he thinks he deserves your vote on 6 May
Some readers may question the need for another left-wing party. The move by Labour to focus on the soft Conservative vote to win the next election leaves space for a party to seek votes for workers, tenants and students. My expectation is the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition will be the party to offer the best policies for these groups at the next General Election.
UKIP and the Greens have shown that parties do not need to win General Elections to influence policy, setting an example for the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition to follow.
Stopping over-development and the campaign for a new wing at King George Hospital are the priorities for my campaign. The high-rise towers planned for Goodmayes and Seven Kings at the Tesco and Homebase car park sites will adversely impact on residents’ health due to traffic pollution and Crossrail noise pollution. They will also damage the quality of life for existing residents due to the extra pollution and the over-stretching of public services.
If elected, I will speak at Redbridge and Havering Town Halls on a monthly basis to provide a report of what I have been doing and take questions from the public and councillors. My reports will include health, crime, housing, education and the climate emergency.
Drilling down into data needs to be done to influence policy. For example, King George and Queen’s Hospitals had the worst Type 1 (the most seriously ill patients) A&E four-hour performance in England in January and February of this year. Research suggests long waits in A&E are linked to longer-than-average stays in hospital.
For years, I have been seeking death rates at King George and Queen’s via freedom of information requests (wnstd.com/walkerfoi). The information I seek is for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. I seek a breakdown of summary hospital-level mortality indicators, the number of patients discharged who died in hospital or within 30 days, the number of mortalities occurring in the hospital and the crude mortality rate. I seek the six diagnostic groups for each month. The refusal to supply these death stats is a cause of concern.
Every vote I get will bring pressure to bear on the NHS to provide these crucial statistics, which are likely to help the campaign for a new wing at King George.
Havering & Redbridge constituency candidates for the London Assembly are: Thomas Clarke (Liberal Democrats), Melanie Collins (Green), Judith Garfield (Labour), Keith Prince (Conservative), Richard Tice (Reform UK) and Andy Walker (Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition). For more information, visit wnstd.com/LA
