Meet the London university student running to be the Liberal Democrat MP for Hackney North

Earlier this year, Rebecca Jones, 21, a politics student at London Met, was announced as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.

Diane Abbott has represented Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, winning 70 per cent of votes cast in 2019.

Rebecca Jones said she has not yet spoken with Diane Abbott, adding: “I’m sure we’re both very busy.” She also said the Lib Dems are the only party that will “really stick by their principles.”

The Liberal Democrats have struggled electorally since 2010, when the party chose to form a government with the Conservatives.

However, Rebecca said that whilst the coalition government was “a mistake,” it is more important to focus on what the party is offering voters now, not their previous decisions.

She said: “If we were holding parties by what they did over a decade ago, we’d still be talking about Labour’s invasion of Iraq.”

Last week, the Lib Dems released their manifesto, which set out what they’d do in government. In it, they promised to reinstate maintenance grants for disadvantaged students “immediately.”

Rebecca aid she supports the policy: “The last thing you need to think of when you’ve got a deadline for your dissertation coming up is ‘Can I actually afford my rent? Or is it time to drop out?'”

She added whilst students taking on one or two days a week of part time work is acceptable, “a student having to do three or four days a week, and working all summer, and still not being able to get by is a damning indictment.”

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Under current guidance, international students and their dependants are counted as part of the UK’s target to reduce net migration. Asked if that was right, the Lib Dem candidate said: “No.”

She said studying at London Metropolitan University meant she has met people from all around the world, who “bring a wealth of experience from different nations.

via Google Maps

“I wouldn’t have gotten that if it was people from around the UK.”

The Lib Dem candidate also brought up the need for migrants in the workforce, particularly in the NHS.She said: “We need more doctors,” adding that the NHS is “utterly crumbling.” She pointed to her grandparents, who she says spend half their time waiting for treatment.

The Lib Dem manifesto promises to increase the number of full-time GPs by 8,000, and “(give) more prescribing rights and public health advisory services to qualified pharmacists, nurse practitioners and paramedics,” to “free up GP’s time.”

On trans healthcare, an important topic to Rebecca, who is transgender, she said waiting lists for gender affirming healthcare are “quite literally” killing people.

“Having to wait two decades to access any kind of medical care is utterly barbaric,” she said.

Research conducted by Translucent found that a trans person who was referred to a gender identity clinic today could wait as long as 54 years for their first appointment, because “the waiting list is growing at nine times the rate of referral.”

Rebecca said that under Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Party have treated transgender people like “disposable cannon fodder.”

However, according to Rebecca, the Lib Dems support trans rights, not just for electoral gain but “because they think it’s the right thing to do.”

The Lib Dem candidate said: “I meet with the leadership of our party twice a year, and they specifically seek us out.”

Recently, students have formed encampments on university campuses to protest university investment in the arms trade, especially in relation to weapons used in Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Rebecca said a ceasefire in Gaza “needed to happen months ago,” adding: “The fact that people have dithered and delayed is just a failure.”

On university protests specifically, she said peaceful protest is a fundamental human right, and said universities shouldn’t be “sending money to a state that is attacking so many civilians.”

Diane Abbott was the first black woman to be elected to Parliament, whilst Rebecca Jones, if elected, would be the first trans woman.

Rebecca called the campaign “important for history,” partly because of the age gap between the candidates.

“We’ve got one of the oldest MPs/candidates running, and one of the youngest at the same time,” she said, adding: “I think it really does show that politics is for everyone. It’s not just for people in their 40s and 50s.”

To find out who’s running to be your MP go to whocanivotefor.co.uk.

Related articles recommended by this author:

• ‘End student fees’: Jeremy Corbyn on his campaign and ending student poverty

• LSE becomes first UK uni to evict pro-Palestine encampment after over a month of occupation

• London Tory candidate Alex Deane on the youth vote, student issues and campus protests

Featured image via Google Maps.