Independent Tanushka Marah launches election campaign in Hove and Portslade

Independent candidate Tanushka Marah launched her election campaign in Hove and Portslade on Sunday telling scores of supporters that she was ready to take on Labour and the Tories and offer a “real alternative” to voters.

In her speech - which received frequent cheers and applause from the crowd - she criticised incumbent Hove MP Peter Kyle for failing to condemn Israeli war crimes and not backing an end to arms sales to Israel. She explained that the main parties’ support for Israel during its ongoing genocide had led her to stand for the general election.

“Peter Kyle has had eight months to condemn any of Israel's many war crimes. And not once, not once, has he done this. He’s had eight months to oppose selling arms sales to Israel and not once has he done this. ”

Marah, who is a theatre director and youth mentor, told a launch gathering of around 100 people in Hove’s Stoneham Park that she wanted to challenge the two main parties and the political establishment in Westminster.

“Our country has some of the lowest levels of happiness in children and in the workforce, the highest levels of poverty, all whilst maintaining Victorian levels of inequality.

“We are in a cost of greed crisis. Our NHS and public sector workers need a real pay rise to end the crisis of recruitment in the health service.”

She said her stance on major issues was in contrast to Labour and the Tories, who both support austerity and privatisation of public services. “We need to end the privatisation of the NHS and bring mail, rail, and water back into public hands.”

A major platform for Marah is to stop funding foreign wars and shift funding into cash-starved welfare. “Keir Starmer wants to spend hundreds of billions on Trident nuclear submarines - but he can't lift the two-child benefit cap because there's no money…"

The event was opened with songs from UK soul artist Lori Asher and poems from Aflo, as well speeches from activists from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Hove trades unionists.

Marah has been endorsed by the Bakers, Food, and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) and film maker Ken Loach, and is standing as part of the Collective group of independents, including Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North.