Candidates blazing the trail! - Gallery 19

Prem Goyal, All People’s Party Candidate, Camberwell and Peckham

Prem is a City entrepreneur, political activist and community organiser. Much of his time is spent promoting community cohesion, supporting third sector organisations and serving the community through civic roles, being a Magistrate, former college Governor, charity Trustee and active Patron to a number of charities and community organisations in Southwark.

He says: “I believe in the values of equality, especially at the top, social justice, fairness, meritocracy and transparency.”

Brought up in poverty in India, he went to a number of universities the US and lived in that country before working in New York, Tokyo and Zurich and then settling in London. He started his company, Global Markets Consultants, in 2002 which has created hundreds of UK contracting jobs.

Twitter: @premgoyal_
Web: http://www.premgoyal.com

Kate Osamor, Labour Candidate, Edmonton

Kate, who has lived in north London all her life, works as a GP Practice Manager at an Enfield surgery.

Her son was born in North Middlesex Hospital and many of her family live across Edmonton.

Her work means she sees the effect of this government's policies on our NHS.

A well known community and trade union activist, Kate is a trustee of a women's charity based in Edmonton Green which helps local people to cope with economic disadvantage.

She pledges to continue former MP Andy Love’s work, and hopes for a Labour government to be elected at this General Election, “one of the most important in a generation.”

Twitter: @kateosamor
Web: http://www.kateosamor.co.uk

Bilal Mahmood, Labour Candidate, Chingford and Woodford Green

Bilal was brought up and still lives locally. He studied law and politics at Nottingham and later at the Virginia Law School in the US, and now works as a solicitor at an international law firm.

His commitment to Labour stems from a sense of civic duty, and for over 13 years he has led London-wide engagement programmes helping those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

As Treasurer of the Walthamstow CLP, Bilal developed funding strategies to help fight local campaigns such as stopping payday lenders. He is a member of the Co-Operative Party, the GMB and the Community Union.

He was previously a Trustee Governor of the English-Speaking Union, and is currently a regional director of Mosaic, part of the Prince's Trust, which mentors disadvantaged young people.

He says: “I’m open, committed and dedicated with a passion for politics and the community in which I live.”

Twitter: @bibal_cwg
Web: http://www.bilalmahmood.co.uk

Maajid Nawaz, Liberal Democrat Candidate, Hamstead and Kilburn

Maajid is Co-Founder and Chairman of Quilliam – a globally active civic-intervention organisation that counteracts extremism. He is also the Founder of Khudi, a Pakistan based social movement campaigning to entrench democratic culture among the nation’s youth.

Having served four years as an Amnesty International adopted ‘prisoner of conscience’ in Egypt, Maajid is now a leading critic of his former Islamist ideological dogma. He now encourages inclusive citizenship-based participation of Muslims in the West and has become a prominent counter-extremism consultant and a regular writer and commentator, speaking around the world.

As a British-Pakistani born in Essex, Maajid speaks English, Arabic and Urdu, and holds a BA (Hons) from SOAS in Arabic and Law and an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics (LSE). He is interested in Arabic grammar & morphology, Muslim Medieval jurisprudence, scholastics and poetry, and emerging modern political trends.

Twitter: @maajidnawaz
Web: http://maajidnawaz.com/

And good luck too to these BME candidates:

Labour Party Candidates

Sundip Meghani, Harborough, Oadby and Wigston
Web: http://sundipmeghani.com
Twitter: @sundip

Sachin Patel, Richmond Park and North Kingston
Web: http://www.labour.org.uk/people/detail/sachin-patel
Twitter: @sachinpatel_87

Purna Sen, Brighton Pavillion
Twitter: @purna_sen
Web: http://www.purna4pavilion.org.uk

Bally Singh, Kenilworth and Southam
Twitter: @ballysingh74
Web: http://www.labour.org.uk/people/detail/bally-singh

Manjinder Singh Kang, The Cotswolds
Twitter: @kang4labour
Web: manjinder.co.uk

Liberal Democrat Party Candidates

Mohammad Ilyas, Halifax
Web: http://www.libdems.org.uk/mohammad_ilyas

Yahaya Kiyingi, Camberwell & Peckham
Twitter: @yahayakiyingi
Web: http://www.libdems.org.uk/yahaya_kiyingi

Joe Naitta, Derby South
Twitter: @joenaitta
Web: http://www.libdems.org.uk/joe_naitta

Sanjay Samani, Angus
Twitter: @ssamani
Web: http://www.libdems.org.uk/sanjay_samani