Palestine activist takes on decorated Marine in the battle for Birmingham Selly Oak

Independent candidate and Palestinian, Prof Kamel Hawwash, has made a last ditch plea to voters to 'keep out' Labour, the party he defected from just nine months ago. He claims the party's local candidate is a 'puppet' parachuted in to do the bidding of the likely next Government leaders.

Hawwash, an engineering lecturer at Birmingham University, says local and national failures over Gaza, poor housing, high levels of deprivation, dirty streets and rising student debt all show the local community has been let down by the Tories in government and by the city's Labour MPs and city council. And now, he claimed, residents are being urged to vote blindly for a Labour man 'with zero connection to Birmingham and no substance as a politician'.

Hawwash, a Palestinian migrant who was sent here by his father alone at the tender age of 15 to learn English, is one of six candidates seeking the support of voters on Thursday (July 4th). He decided to stand in Selly Oak rather than his home constituency of Northfield in order to directly take on Labour's Steve McCabe, chair of the Labour Friends of Israel, he said.

READ MORE: Ex-Marine pledges to put life on line for people of Selly Oak after Labour 'posting'

McCabe resigned just ahead of nominations closing, paving the way for the party to send in its own candidate, Al Carns, without involving local party members. "I was disappointed (McCabe was not standing). I really think he was running scared. He knew that every aspect of his words and actions defending the Israeli government against the indefensible would be scrutinised, as well as his poor record as a constituency MP," said Hawwash.

Instead Hawwash is up against former Marine and Colonel Carns, decorated with the Military Cross and mentioned in despatches for bravery in Afghanistan. He left behind his military career to be parachuted in by the Labour Party over any local candidates last month. Hawwash is former University of Birmingham's head of school for civil engineering and is also a past president of the European Society for Engineering Education. He joined the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in frustration over the reoccupation of parts of Gaza and the West Bank in the early 2000s, and became its president, a role he still holds.

"The October events changed everything for Israelis and Palestinians alike," he said. Hawwash was among tens of thousands who rallied peacefully to press for a ceasefire, and was involved in doorstep protests outside McCabe's constituency office. He had been a Labour member for six years but quit after Keir Starmer gave his now infamous interview to LBC in which he appeared to back Israel's right to withhold aid, food and medicine to Gazans.

"As an independent I can now truly listen to constituents and am not bound by a party whip, which I think is the most damaging issue in British democracy. When people get to Parliament they end up losing themselves, they have to vote and speak in the way they are ordered to by their party," he said.

"When you look at other countries trying to adopt democracy they have clans and families which operate in the same way, who say 'we will support you and when you get to Parliament you have to do as we wish', and we rightly denigrate that - but it's what is happening here.

"Richard Burden in Northfield was an exception, in my opinion, he showed how it should work. He was the chair of the all party group on Palestine and although sometimes we would disagree he was an excellent MP. So it's interesting that when they were looking to put up an alternative to McCabe they did not choose anyone locally. They chose someone with no political history at all, with no knowledge or attachment to Birmingham, never mind Selly Oak.

"Who is and why is he here? I am troubled that anyone should accept being just sent to somewhere they have no connection to. To me that reflects poor judgement, it doesn't reflect well on him that he is using Selly Oak as a stepping stone to something else. Some may be swayed by his military background, by his fighting service in Afghanistan, but essentially he is a Starmer puppet.

"He's not even clear where he personally stands on things like the two child benefit cap, on free school meals, on student fees, let alone on major issues of foreign policy. That is really not good enough. They are taking the voters for granted."

Hawwash said his campaign positions include:

• Scrap student tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants

• Immediate recognition of Palestine, and end all arms sales

• Build social homes for rent to end housing crisis

• Introduce a wealth tax, so 'the people with the broadest shoulders should be contributing to people who are suffering and struggling'.

• Reduce NHS waiting lists and halt privatisation

On LGBT policy, which has been a challenging issue for some Independent candidates, he said he supported the Equality Act. "When I came to the UK in 1977, being gay was illegal. Society has now come to terms with people being gay, it is enshrined in law, gay marriage was agreed by the Conservative government. Just as I call for freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people, I do the same for gay people." But he said there was currently "a societal challenge around how to deal with the 'T of LGBT' - those who have or are transitioning. People need to acknowledge we have to deal with the issue very sensitively because it's about people's lives and wellbeing, and nobody should feel excluded."

Hawwash is part of a left wing coalition of candidates who share the same values, grouped around former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Some financial backing comes via Assemble, a collective which is seeking to establish local assemblies at ward level up, which would see residents democratically setting out to their MPs their views and ambitions on a regular basis, not just at election time. It would get away from the 'whipped' style of party-led governing, he said.

Among the other candidates in Birmingham Selly Oak is Reform UK candidate Erin Crawford. She is a 'born and bred Brummie', proudly working class, 21, and studying accountancy and finance at university whilst holding down a job. She said: "I have always been disappointed with those in the office who have absolutely zero clue what it is like in the real world, who have never experienced hardship or had to work the daily grind to make ends meet. I came to the conclusion that no one really represents me or the working class, so I thought why not me? I hope many of you can relate and feel a similar conviction."

Her policies include encouraging self sustainability, use British gas and oil resources to heat our homes, make a BBC licence fee optional, and raise the tax threshold to £20,000 to help low paid workers.

Also standing:

• Jane Baston - Green Party

• Alistair Carns - Labour

• Simon Phipps - Conservatives

• Dave Radcliffe- Lib Dems