As the General Elections are coming, it is primordial to understand what the inhabitants of Camberwell are expecting from their next MP.
Harriet Harman has been a Labour Party member of Parliament since 1982 for Peckham and since 1997 for Peckham and Camberwell. In 2017, Theresa May dubbed her “Mother of the House”.
She is running again for the upcoming elections.
When someone has been a Member of Parliament for as long as Harman has, an important aspect is to still follow the actuality of the area she is representing.
In order to understand what the locals from her area are expecting, SLL went to ask some of them what were the most important things they expected from their next elected MP whether it is Harman again or another person.
Cheryl Richards, 47, designer, living in the area for 10 years expects from her next representatives to support local businesses and that they “keep understanding the local communities and changes”. She told SLL ‘as Camberwell has been going through gentrification for the past decade, it is primordial that the people who were there before the process started still feel included in the area they’ve lived in their whole life’.
Georgina Joel, 52, independent jeweller, living in the area for 2 years expects from her next representatives to invest more in local schools and in security measures as Camberwell is a major crossroad, to her, there should be more police in the streets.
Debby Allen, 67, retired, living in the area for 12 years expects from her next representatives to deal with the pollution issue in the area as Camberwell has become a major crossroad. She also expects them to act on the public transportation situation as the Denmark Hill Overground station has seen its daily traffic raise from 2 million to 7 million daily in the past decade. She also expects from a likely labour representative to create more council housing.
Michael Johnson, 55, handyman in Camberwell told SLL ‘I’ve been living around since 96 and voted Labour my whole life, our MP, Ms Harman is one of the best things that happened here. She knows the area, everybody knows her and she listens to us. We told her about the situation in Denmark Hill and she listened to us. They said on Southwark News that they were gonna expand the overground station. I really hope she’s gonna keep her seat”.
Bonny Ginger, 30, designer and artist lived in the area her whole life. She’s a proud member of the Green Party and criticised her current MP. ‘Yes Ms Harman is a great politician and she’s had tremendous importance with the role of women in the Parliament. But she’s not up to date anymore, our next MP needs to understand the capital importance of dealing with pollution in the massive transit area that is Camberwell.’
George Wattings, 37, a trader has lived in the area for five years. ‘There are a lot of issues Labour doesn’t seem to want to address, especially here in Camberwell. The poverty, the homelessness, the drug addicts that are everywhere at night. We absolutely need more police around the [Camberwell] Green.’
The Labour party has been historically controlling most of the south of the capital. It is less than likely to change even after the antisemitism inquiries into the Labour party that have been multiplying these past years.
As of today, December 13, the Labour Party of Camberwell has not answered any of SLL’s emails, tweets or phone calls.
Though the Labour Party and MP Harman were re-elected by 71% of the polls in the Camberwell & Peckham area.
