Ken in Newham

This evening I joined Labour Candidate for London Mayor, Ken Livingstone and his team as they visited the historic Theatre Royal in

Stratford.

Ken had been in Newham all day and had already gone on a Housing enforcement visit with Council officers and Newham Mayor Robin Wales in the morning. He then had a briefing with local Councillors and a Q&A with students at Newham College, as well as a “walkabout” in Green Street.

With Ken was Assembly member Val Shawcross (who is standing for Deputy Mayor) local Assembly member John Biggs and Newham’s finest, GLA Candidate, Councillor Unmesh Desai (who is also East Ham Labour Party Agent).

At the Theatre Royal there was firstly an informal meeting with staff and local actors (whose first break had been in the Theatre) in the “Green Room” followed by a brief tour of the theatre and a visit to a Performing Arts class to observe a lesson on “improvisations”. Which was simply enormous fun to watch. Afterwards there was a very relaxed discussion between staff, the young people and Ken, Val and John about the future of performing arts, dance and further education generally. I think the photo above is great. 

Afterwards we went off to the Didsbury Centre in East Ham for the Newham “Tell Ken” event (sponsored by London UNISON Labour Link) which I will post upon soon.

TELL KEN: Didsbury Centre, East Ham Mon 30th Jan

Next Monday January 30th Labour candidate for London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, will be spending the day in Newham campaigning. In the evening 7pm to 8.30pm there will be a "TELL KEN" event at the Didsbury Centre, 2 Didsbury Close, East Ham, E6 2SX (5 minutes walk away from East Ham Town Hall). This is sponsored by Greater London UNISON Labour Link.

Further good news today about Ken's campaign. Another
opinion poll has put him (narrowly) into the lead. "

Tessa Jowell said today, “This poll shows that Boris Johnson is increasingly out of touch with Londoners facing a squeeze in their living standards. They know that under Boris Johnson, fares have gone up; violent crime including knife crime and robbery are rising while the numbers of police keeping Londoners safe are being cut. Ken will put Londoners first by cutting bus, tube and train fares and making the streets safer by protecting police services.