Green Party's Mayoral contender Sian Berry toured Queen's Market in East End, near West Ham stadium, and found plenty of unhappy traders, furious at damp-riddled ceilings, crippling council rent increases and poor sanitation.
She joined Green London Assembly candidates in Newham, a Labour stronghold and one of London’s most culturally diverse boroughs, to launch manifesto policies aimed at black and minority ethnic Londoners.
Ms Berry, a Camden councillor fighting her second mayoral election, is upbeat despite the chill and a YouGov survey for the Standard last week that put the Greens at six per cent of first-choice votes, one point behind Ukip.
She took the chance to walk around in a strong Labour hold area, talking about her campaign and listening to traders' views.
Ms Berry said: “I enjoy campaigning. One of the things about Zac [Goldsmith] is I think he doesn’t look like he’s enjoying this — he looks like, ‘Can this be over, please?’ ”
She Berry tells traders on Saturday afternoon she is pledging more support for small businesses run by Londoners from ethnic minorities, including a “less prejudiced” public bank. She also wants 40% of Met police from culturally diverse backgrounds.
The Evening Standard reported, a number of traders at Queen’s Market, which began in 1904, have been hit with rent rises of up to 50%. At Nazia Mumtaz’s family-run textiles kiosk, she points to patches of damp on the ceiling. Ms Mumtaz, a 30-year-old photographer, helps with the business established 12 years ago by her Pakistan-born parents.
She said: “It’s lovely to be here, there’s a lot of nationalities, but lovely won’t make us money. The problem is this market’s dying slowly and surely.
“It reeks, there’s damp coming through the ceiling, it’s run down, the footfall has shrunk to 25%, but the council want a rent review.”
Ms Berry reportedly told Ms Mumtaz: “What we don’t want is for it to be regenerated and redeveloped into the flats and shops you see on the high street.”
