Cities of London and Westminster election candidates 2024 explain what they'll do if you vote for them

The parliamentary seat of the Cities of London and Westminster has elected a Tory MP since its inception in the 1950 General Election, records show. It has returned political figures like former Speaker of the Commons Sir Harry Hylton-Foster and Peter Brooke, a former cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government. In 2019, the seat was won by Nickie Aiken by a majority of 3,953 votes.

The seat consists of most wards in the City of Westminster and the City of London. It will now include wards in the soon-to-be abolished seat of Westminster North thanks to changes announced in the 2023 Period Review of electoral boundaries. Polling by Polling Report UK shows a tight race between Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Nickie Aiken announced she would not stand for re-election earlier this year.

Below is the full list of candidates in alphabetical order according to their surname, and what they would do if elected.

READ MORE: Voters in London seat tipped to go to Labour are split on whether party is better under Starmer

Conservative Party - Tim Barnes

Tim Barnes is a former Westminster City councillor who represented the West End ward until 2022. He was also the cabinet member for Young People and Learning, overseeing Westminster City's schools, libraries, and children's services. Tim lives in Soho which he claims makes him the only candidate of a major party to live in the constituency. He said this means he uses the same services and lives with the same issues as every resident. He currently leads a small charity on the Strand supporting people who want to start a business.

He told MyLondon: "As a former councillor on Westminster City Council I know [about] many of the issues and how to get things done. I was the the Cabinet Member responsible for our schools, libraries and children's services, with a £100m budget so I have the experience to deliver on the issues people really care about, too, and will use that to prioritise safer streets, housing to be proud of, transport that works, investment for our public services, cleaner air and a ladder of opportunity for everyone who lives here."

Labour Party - Rachel Blake

Rachel Blake joined the Labour Party in 2003 and was part of the team which turned six safe Liberal Democrat seats to Labour in 2006, according to her website. In 2014, she was elected as a local councillor in Tower Hamlets and rose through the ranks to become deputy mayor in 2018. She has been a policy advisor under Gordon Brown and worked in grassroots charities supporting homeless and unemployed households. Rachel has championed the development of council homes.

If elected, Rachel has promised to work on reducing child poverty and ending pensioner poverty. She has also promised to tackle local issues such as short-term lets, the night time economy, the shortage of decent, affordable housing, inequality, discrimination, poor quality private rented sector housing, poor air quality and insecurity in the workplace.

Rejoin EU - Liz Burford

Liz Burford is representing Rejoin EU which is seeking the UK's full return to EU membership, according to the party’s website. It proposes extensive constitutional reforms and the introduction of proportional representation voting, term membership of the House of Lords and stricter standards on how politicians behave.

The party proposes greater military integration with the EU and says it supports freedom of movement in the EU. It also wants to legislate 'greater entitlement' to efficient treatment, pandemic preparedness and access to skilled EU workers in the NHS and to coordinate climate change policies with Brussels.

Social Democratic Party - Hugh De Burgh

Hugh De Burgh is representing the Social Democratic Party (SDP). According to its website, the party wants to host an English Parliament outside of London and grant all devolved parliaments in the UK the same level of power currently enjoyed by the Scottish Parliament. It also wants to introduce a system of proportional representation.

The party wants to abolish the Supreme Court and reform the House of Lords so that only 400 peers will be able to serve at any one time for a maximum of 15 years and would be chosen by an independent nominations committee. It wants to remove what it calls market distortions to reinvigorate housebuilding and to introduce a national, independent audit on how councils across the country perform.

Independent - Matthew Carr

According to Matthew Carr's website, he wants to 'push power back to the people' and is advocating for people not on welfare to pay between £5 and £10 to use the NHS, claiming this will ease demand for services, save costs and ease the push for privatisation. He wants to regulate recreational drugs and improve welfare protections.

Matthew is pushing for higher costs for polluters and a tax on the wealthy. He wants more important decisions by the government to be made by referendum, which he said could be sped up by using facial recognition and mobile phones. He wants to improve whistleblower protections, create urban renewal in cities and cut housing costs.

Independent - John Generic

John Generic describes himself as a process analyst keen to make democracy in the UK more efficient, according to his website. He wants to boost government decision-making through referenda, which he hopes will eradicate lobbying and influencing of politicians. John wants to boost how citizens engage with their political system and improve accountability, responsibility, risk and reward in elected officials. He wants citizens to choose the country’s top 10 goals and have parties propose manifestos which meet these goals.

Reform UK - Tarun Ghulati

Tarun Ghulati, 63, is an investment banker who previously stood as an independent in the London mayoral election, according to the BBC. As Reform UK's candidate for this election, Tarun has pledged to work towards the enforcement of 'zero tolerance' policing, claiming he was once mugged on his local high street, according to his X feed. In a clip, he said: "As the candidate for Reform UK for the Cities of London and Westminster, it will be my duty to ensure and restore law and order, zero tolerance for knife crime. I will work very hard to ensure everybody feels safe and secure, not looking over their shoulder. "

Tarun is said to have lived in London for 20 years and has previously accused Sadiq Khan of bringing the capital to a 'standstill'. In his run for mayor of London, he campaigned to abolish ULEZ and scrap the Congestion Charge on weekends and holidays and promised to launch a review into 20mph speed limit zones and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Tarun was born and grew up in India.

Independent - Tim Hallett

Tim Hallett is the founder of the Modern Evolutionary Democracy Party (MEDP). Tim said he is the owner of a multi-award winning small business and has previously worked in central government. In 2019, he became disillusioned with politics and spoiled his ballot paper and began searching for an alternative.

MEDP proposes a new model of government through a proportional representation combining it with 'leading-edge political theory'. Tim told MyLondon: "Our politicians are failing us. We all know it. But if our politicians never live up to our expectations, shouldn’t we be asking: are they the problem, or is it the system?

"And you’d be right to ask the question. Our politicians are bad, but the system is the root of the problem. It’s a system that was designed when 30% of us could read and write, and it took ten days to get a message from Edinburgh to London. The world is different beyond imagination now. We have the answer. We are proposing a new, innovative system of democracy and it’s simple to understand, yet realistic and proven. It’s democracy for a new generation. We exist for one reason only, and for only as long as it takes: to change government from the ground up. Because once that works as it should, everything else can follow."

Liberal Democrats - Edward Lucas

Edward Lucas is a former journalist and an internationally recognised security expert who studied at the London School of Economics. He is a regular contributor at the BBC and The Times and was previously a foreign correspondent.

Edward, who says he is not a 'professional politician', said he has spent his life fighting for truth and justice. He has been beaten up, arrested, interrogated and deported by communist secret police and said he is not afraid to stand up to dictators abroad and bullies at home.

Edward became the full-time candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster in 2021 and has been campaigning on local, national and international issues. He claims to have exposed the government's secret blacklists, which he said punished independent experts for their political views. He said he has also pushed the police to deal with rogue cyclists and defended the Covent Garden street performers against the Westminster City Council's crackdown. Edward is 62. He is married with three children and lives in Central London.

Workers Party of Britain - Hoz Shafiei

Hoz Shafiei is the national election coordinator for the Workers Party of Britain, according to his website. Hoz said he is outspoken on issues of social justice and human rights, particularly concerning those in the Middle East. He has condemned the actions of the Israeli military in Gaza and called for an end to the support that countries like the UK and the US provide to Israel.

Hoz has campaigned to boost investment in healthcare, education and housing and wants to build more affordable housing. He wants to rejuvenate the welfare state and address what he calls are systemic issues that have led to poverty and inequality. He has promised to advocate for 'rigorous policies' around taxing multinationals for the revenue earned in the UK and to close loopholes that allow companies to offshore profits. He has vowed to improve access to degrees and vocational training and advocates to bring essential services such as rail, water, and energy back into public ownership.

Green Party - Rajiv Sinha

Rajiv has lived in the Two Cities his whole life, according to his campaign website. He is the director of a human rights nonprofit in the UK and has worked on projects countering Islamophobia in the Indian diaspora. He wants to build more social and intermediate housing in the constituency and is campaigning for rent controls and ending Section 21 no-fault evictions. He is campaigning to boost funding in the NHS and stop what he claims is the 'creeping privatisation' of the health service. He is also calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Rajiv was a London Assembly candidate for West Central London and has worked with political figures such as Zack Polanski and Zoe Garbett. He recently campaigned with Coreline Russell, leader of the Greens at City Hall, to end 'loo deserts' in the Tube network. He is passionate about ending homelessness. He said: "Homelessness is a tragedy that also happens to be a political choice. Successive governments from establishment parties have made it clear that this tragedy is not a top priority for them. The Finnish capital city Helsinki shows that a series of relatively simple decisions can essentially end homelessness if the political will is there."

Want more from MyLondon? Sign up to our daily newsletters for all the latest and greatest from across London here.