Michelle Harris and Mark McDonald - Your Labour Candidates

Just like you, we like to know who we are voting for when we go into the ballot box, but for too long we have had councillors with hidden political allegiances. The City of London is the only council in the country where candidates do not specify their political party affiliations or even their views. We feel this is a serious democratic flaw. Additionally, we feel Residents' concerns are often unheard on the Council and so support the creation of a residents panel. Perhaps, as a consequence of our highly publicised stance other candidates in this ward have now indicated they are working together on a slate, but still have not declared their political views or provided you with a manifesto. Both of us have a proven track record in fighting for democracy and transparency; and are barristers at 1 Pump Court chambers.

Michelle was elected on to the Bar Council and stood on a similar manifesto. At the time of her election the Bar Council suffered from being unaccountable and lacked transparancy in how it appionted members of the committees; the Committee Chair had an unfettered discretion to choose the members. Michelle, intially with no support, single-handedly campaigned for a minimum of 50% Bar Council membership on all the committees with the other positions to be advertised in accordance with equal opportunities. Within a year her motion was passed with unanimous support from the Bar Council. After fulfilling her manifesto Michelle resigned from the Bar Council and, in an effort to lead by example, also resigned from seven Bar Council committees.

Mark has been a member of the Labour Party for over 15 years. He discovered that the post of treasurer within the party had never been challenged and thus did not have an electoral mandate. Mark decided to stand himself and had a large amount of grass-root support. More important than the result was the need to highlight the importance of transparency and democracy. Mark demonstrated that these values are so important to us that we will fight for their existence even within organisations that we cherish. He is the founding Director of the London Innocence Project, which provides pro bono support for victims of miscarriages of justice.