Walsall Independent's Aftab Nawaz has said he will make sure locals are heard

Express & Star

Aftab Nawaz has said that if Independent win in Walsall tonight, the residents voices will be heard.

Transcript

00:00So we're here with the independent candidate, Aftab Nawaz. How are you doing? Are you okay?

00:02I'm great, thank you.

00:03Yeah, fantastic. How's it been today? So, how have you found it so far?

00:05It's been really tiring. We've been getting out there. The weather wasn't as great as it looked.

00:10Absolutely.

00:11But we had a lot of people come out, so hopefully they've been able to express their views.

00:15Absolutely.

00:16And as a democracy, it's not just about winning, it's about expressing the views that people have.

00:21Absolutely, yeah. A democratic process, isn't it?

00:23Absolutely.

00:24That's the perfect envision of what you've seen today.

00:26Absolutely.

00:27So what's it like being out there talking to the residents?

00:30So people have a lot of concerns. People's lives are very hard. People want an improvement.

00:36They want a change. And that kind of change is... people are desperate for it.

00:42They want to reduce their bills. They want a better NHS. They want more police on the streets.

00:48They want a green agenda which they can actually take part in rather than being costed out of

00:56because it's so expensive. So they have those feelings as well.

00:59But there's a lot of people from that community who really care about Palestine and Gaza as well.

01:04And they want to see the killing stopped. They want to see some level of fairness and less hypocrisy

01:12from Keir Starmer and his group of many men who are totally supportive of the Israeli regime

01:18and what they're doing in Palestine.

01:20So what was your initial reaction to the exit poll at the show?

01:25To tell you the truth, it's been predicted for ages that Labour's going to have the government.

01:30And the Conservatives shouldn't get back into power anyway with the kind of thing

01:35they've left this country with in such a bad state.

01:38Labour has promised a lot of things and I think there'll be people out there who've voted for Labour

01:43just because they're not Conservatives rather than voting for Labour on a positive stand.

01:47I was a Labour member for almost 24 years. I've gone through the mill of fighting elections and that.

01:56And I find this particular part of the Labour movement not giving you enough details

02:05about exactly what they're going to do. There's a lot of catchphrases.

02:08Life's going to get better. We're going to sort out the economy. We're going to make things better.

02:14But how? And how are you going to do it? What are the details?

02:19And I think that's what a lot of people will be looking towards.

02:23So if things do go your way tonight, what's the next step?

02:29Well if they do go my way I'll be absolutely honoured and humbled because I was born in this borough.

02:36I've lived here all my life. I still live here with my children.

02:39And one of the things we've found with a lot of people is they really want a local voice.

02:43They may have voted for the Labour Party this time but that doesn't happen all the time.

02:48They will come back and we will come back if we don't win to offer that local voice that people want.

02:54It's not just a Westminster voice or a party voice. A local voice people are desperate for.

02:59And if we do win we'll go to Parliament and we'll represent the whole of our constituency.

03:04We'll talk about the concerns that they have and we won't get involved in party politics.

03:09We'll get involved in the concerns of our constituents because you can bet your bottom dollar if it's a Labour victory

03:15they'll be more interested in what's happening in their party than what's happening with their constituents.

03:20Fantastic. Thank you very much.

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