Pic: Raziye Akkoc and Laurence Dodds

London Assembly candidates for City and East – including Tower Hamlets, Newham, and Barking and Dagenham – will go head to head before the public in an event organised by EastLondonLines.

Candidates from five parties, including current Labour Assembly member John Biggs, will stand up for their policies and answer questions from the public in advance of elections on May 3.
The event, organised in the style of the BBC’s Question Time, is open to all without booking and will take place at Oxford House on Derbyshire Street, Bethnal Green on Tuesday, April 17 at 6:30pm to 8pm.

UKIP candidate Steven Woolfe joined the line-up on Monday. Beside him and Biggs, the other hopefuls are, Green Party candidate Chris Smith, the Liberal Democrats’ Richard Macmillan, and Conservative candidate John Moss.

Inspired by the Croydon Advertiser’s debate for Croydon and Sutton candidates, EastLondonLines will give residents the chance to quiz their candidates on pressing issues from transport through housing to unemployment.

To ask for information, or submit questions in advance, please email us comments@eastlondonlines.co.uk, or visit our Facebook page (event page here).

Biggs, a former leader of Tower Hamlets Council, has represented City and East since the foundation of the Assembly in 2000, and has been in borough politics for over 24 years. He backs Ken Livingstone as Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London, and has pledged to invest in lower-income areas and create more 20 mile-per-hour zones to improve road safety. Watch our interview with him here.

Smith, the Green Party’s candidate, is a filmmaker and former TV producer who wants to encourage local entrepreneurs to invest in the area and employ locals on a London living wage. His party has pledged to reduce fares across the capital and is backing Southwark Assembly member Jenny Jones for Mayor. Watch our interview with him here.

Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Macmillan is a lawyer originally from York and keen marathon runner who pledges to lobby for reduced business rates in the area, stop homophobic attacks, and separate cycle lanes from main roads. The Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London, Brian Paddick, proposes a one-hour bus pass for commuters. See our interview with Macmillan here.

The Conservative Party’s John Moss, a chartered surveyor from Chingford, wants to campaign for a ‘curry college’ to be built near Brick Lane for training chefs, improve the dangerous Bow roundabout, and support the housing and transport plans of incumbent Mayor Boris Johnson. Watch our interview with Moss here.

UKIP candidate Steven Woolfe, from Pimlico, is a financial services barrister and City spokesman for the party. He was previously a Conservative councillor in North Wales in 2002, before joining UKIP nearly two years ago. He wants to campaign for free parking on Saturday evenings and Sundays, reducing business regulation to encourage jobs, and a two-year fare freeze if it is possible. Watch our interview with Woolfe here.

Click here to see more interviews with London Assembly candidates from across the four EastLondonLines boroughs.

By Raziye Akkoc and Laurence Dodds