I am a Labour councillor for Isleworth and Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Public Spaces on Hounslow Council.

Full statement

In 2022, I launched Grow for the Future, the UK’s first-ever policy to transform wasteland into allotments, community gardens and orchards and pair them with schools and community groups in deprived areas for people to grow food in the cost-of-living crisis and learn about sustainability, biodiversity and healthy living. The policy has been backed by the UK government and championed by Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter OBE. In 2026, I launched its new sister programme – Go Forth and Grow for the Future – as the first Right to Grow policy in West London and one of the first in the country, allowing residents to plant food and flowers on unused public land. The first two projects have seen a neglected alleyway in Isleworth brought to life with flowers planted by the community, and a beautiful new sensory garden on Ivybridge Estate.

In 2024, I partnered with Jamie Oliver to launch the celebrity chef’s first-ever food education programme directly targeted at primary schools to tackle childhood obesity. Kids from Ivybridge Primary School and across the borough have been taught how to cook healthy meals by the teachers, parents and community workers we’ve trained up.

Working closely with the community, I helped lead the successful campaign to save Park Road Allotments from being developed into flats by the Duke of Northumberland’s Estate. After planning permission was rejected, I led efforts to negotiate an agreement with Northumberland Estates, which has seen the council take on the lease of the land and secure the long-term future of the allotments.

I have consistently campaigned to prevent sewage dumping at Mogden, exposing Thames Water’s practices in the press and forcing the company to clean up after a major spill in Isleworth.

I’m working with Ealing Council, the GLA and the National Trust to build a new West London Regional Park, am bringing in new padel courts for Isleworth Leisure Centre, introduced the card parking machine at South Street to support digital inclusion, and have overseen the rollout of the new Community Hub at Isleworth Library. I worked with the Friends of Northcote Nature Reserve on the transformation of Pitt Park.

As a councillor for Isleworth for the last eight years, I’ve helped residents with hundreds of pieces of casework every year from housing, planning, schools and green spaces, to parking, litter, fly-tipping and ASB.

Outside of politics, I’ve worked as a journalist and magazine editor am now CEO of media company Carter Fleet. As a writer, I’ve contributed to the Guardian, New Statesman, New Internationalist, and Times of India, and I frequently comment on politics and economics on TV and radio. My exclusive exposes on corporate tax avoidance have made front-page news in the Observer and have been picked up by the FT and the Telegraph. I’m author of the novel Freebourne.

I am standing for re-election in Isleworth where I will continue to work every day for a greener, fairer and more equal Isleworth for all our residents.