“We have changed and are now back in the service of working people.”
This is the first of a series of five interviews the Standard has conducted with each of Harwich and North Essex's parliamentary candidates for the 2024 General Election - for the sake of fairness this interview was conducted over email.
My first and main question to Alex Diner, 37, who was announced as the Labour candidate in March, was what makes him qualified to be the MP of Harwich and North Essex?
Mr Diner said that alongside, his brother, he was the first in his family to go to university which was “an opportunity afforded to families like mine by the last Labour government”.
Mr Diner said he wants to make sure the “barriers to opportunity” that the Tories have built over the last 14 years “are torn down” and these barriers are not just educational inequality but also the Conservative’s economic record in office.
He said: “In my day job, I work to improve access to social and affordable housing”.
“Here in north Essex, many young people can’t afford their dream home. That barrier to opportunity is one I’m keen to tackle and is something I would bring my expertise to in parliament and locally.”
Mr Diner did his undergraduate degree in history at Cambridge University followed by a Masters in history at Oxford from the years 2006 to 2010.
Mr Diner had no response when asked if he had ever lived in Essex before, or if he lives in Essex now, and what he believes is the top issue in the constituency.
When asked whether he was a "parachuted" candidate’, Mr Diner said: “Voters are telling me on the doorstep that after 14 long years of the Tories in power they feel let down by the Government and neglected by their local MP”.
“That’s something I want to fix. A good MP understands their voters, gives them their support, and represents them fully in Parliament. That is something I will commit myself to if elected on July 4.”
I also asked Alex Diner, if he had any policies in mind for the local area.
Mr Diner said that people are “fed up” of reporting a crime only for the “criminals to get away”, and added: “Labour’s proposals to introduce 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers will mean we can take back our streets from crime and anti-social behaviour.
“I would campaign hard to ensure communities across Harwich and north Essex get their fair share so we can bring back neighbourhood policing in north Essex.”
Another policy Mr Diner said was to hold Anglian Water to account for the "contempt they have shown to our rivers and to our communities by continually dumping sewage”.
He added: “A Labour government has a plan to tackle this – it’s just a shame the Tories have sat on their hands and done nothing for so long."
When asked about what Labour’s policies are for the NHS, Mr Diner said: “Over 14 years, the Conservatives have taken the golden inheritance left by the last Labour government and wrecked it”.
“When we left office in 2010 the NHS had the lowest waiting lists on record and the highest patient satisfaction in its history.”
Mr Diner said Labour would deliver an extra 40,000 appointments a week at evenings and weekends, as well as 700,000 emergency dentistry appointments a year.
This would be paid Mr Diner said by “clamping down on tax dodgers” before adding: “We have saved the NHS before, and we will do so again.”
Asked about whether Labour factionalism would become a problem if they are elected – and also what faction he is in – Mr Diner said: “Labour has a united team.
“We have changed and are now back in the service of working people. The contrast with the Conservative Party – divided, squabbling amongst one another and obsessed with internal issues rather than those facing hard-pressed families across the country – could not be clearer.”
Mr Diner backed Owen Smith in his unsuccessful bid for the Labour leadership in 2016 against Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr Diner did not answer whether he had ever lived in Essex before, or if he lives in Essex currently.
He also had no answer when asked about his experience as an Islington councillor – from 2014 to 2018 - or as senior housing researcher at London-based think-tank the New Economics Foundation.
I also asked Alex Diner about the story of his grandparents’ connection to Harwich – which was revealed when he was announced as Labour’s candidate.
He said: “Harwich has been home to my family for years.
“When my grandfather fled Europe in the 1930s as a child refugee and came to the UK, he arrived in Harwich and stayed in Dovercourt.”
Mr Diner added: “This wonderful community welcomed him with open arms.
“I grew up just over the other side of Essex, but much of my family still live in Harwich and Dovercourt so I have strong family roots in the constituency.”
To conclude, Mr Diner said: “Ivan Henderson and our Labour councillors in Harwich and Dovercourt work hard and deliver for our community, and local people know that.
“There is huge potential in having a Labour MP working alongside your team of Labour councillors to deliver for North Essex.”
He added: “We need to make a success of Freeport East - but people are tired of broken promises.
“I want to work together on this – with a government not marred in chaos and an MP committed to delivering on the change our community is crying out for – and we’ll start to see real progress in north Essex.”
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