The South London area getting its first new MP in 40 years but they don’t know who they can trust

In the after-lunch lull at Rye Lane Market in Peckham, nobody wants to speak about the election. After a few more shakes of the head at the first mention of voting, stall owner Sandrine pauses when asked what she thinks of Rishi Sunak, and if polls are trusted, the soon-to-be prime minister Keir Starmer.

“As I see it, they are from the same fathers,” the 39-year-old says. Sunak appears to be in it for his own benefit, in her opinion. The problem with Starmer is not personal, but rather his party’s policy: “Even Labour, it’s for businesses [but] it’s not small businesses like me,” she says. “They are looking after big companies and banks. It doesn’t make any difference for the people at the bottom.”

It’s a feeling of disenchantment that Miatta Fahnbulleh, running to be the Labour MP, says she has heard a lot while campaigning. “The sense politics can change things has been beaten out of people,” she says during a visit to the Tustin estate on Old Kent Road.

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Fahnbulleh, a former think tank boss, says she made the switch from policy to politics after seeing the pandemic bring into relief inequalities, only for things to return to normal after Covid-19 subsided. “I thought surely this is it. It’s going to change things,” Fahnbulleh says. “And when it didn’t… It wasn’t just that it didn’t change things, we went backwards. You absolutely need people campaigning and fighting and organising from the outside… but you also need people in politics.”

Fahnbulleh, 44, came to the UK with her family as a child after fleeing civil war in Liberia. If elected, she will replace Harriet Harman who is stepping down from her over 40-year reign as the area’s Labour MP. In 2019, Harman won 71 per cent of the vote in the now-abolished Camberwell and Peckham seat, and the Peckham constituency which replaces it this year is the 10th safest Labour seat in the country.

Despite her expected victory, Fahnbulleh says she is aware of the uphill battle she faces in reconnecting with residents turned off by politics. She is currently looking at potential sites around Peckham where she can open a constituency office, which she says is important to remain accessible to residents. (Harman controversially hasn’t had a public office in the area for a number of years).

Back in Rye Lane Market, Ehis, 43, owner of Jet Hair and Beauty, says she would appreciate more honesty and fewer gimmicks from politicians. She tells me she is turned off by the Conservative Party’s Rwanda policy and attitude toward the EU and is leaning toward Labour, but feels the party isn’t being truthful about the costs of its policies. “It’s like me saying I’m going to open a new shop but we’re not going to put prices up. That’s a big fat lie,” she says.

Labour has said it will not increase income tax, national insurance or VAT, but some independent economists have expressed scepticism about how feasible this commitment is in the long run if the economy grows slowly.

Outside indie cinema Peckhamplex, younger residents like Maysoon Matthhysen have a different criticism. They say they’re disappointed with Starmer’s lack of ambition and his delay in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“He’s too towards the centre,” the 31-year-old tells me. “I think I would vote for Labour, not because I think they are doing well enough to counter the Conservative Party. But I feel like if I vote for Green, I would take away the country’s opportunity to not have a Tory government.”

Fahnbulleh admits some people on the doorstep have been angry with Labour over the issue. She says: “The thing I say is: I understand you are hurt. Our endpoint wasn’t our start point… [But now] you have a Labour Party that is committed to an immediate ceasefire… that is committed to upholding both the remit, the jurisdiction and the judgement of the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice and is committed to finding a viable two-state solution.”

Closer to home, Fahnbulleh says that conversations she has had with residents in Peckham show the main issues facing people are the cost of living and lack of what Fahnbulleh calls ‘economic opportunity,’ safety and housing (over 17,000 people in Southwark are waiting for a council home and private rents are effectively unaffordable for many people on low wages).

Labour’s manifesto says it will build 1.5 million homes over the course of the next parliament (approximately five years) but it doesn’t set targets for affordable or social homes. Fahnbulleh says she has confidence in the plans. “Everything I’ve heard… we are seeing the biggest emphasis on social and affordable that we’ve ever seen,” she says, echoing Starmer’s pledge to deliver ‘the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation’.

“In the end, there’s no root to solving the housing crisis unless we build and we have to build more social housing,” Fahnbulleh says. “If we can get to the level of social housing we need, we can begin to shift the dial in about 10 years.”

But new homes are often divisive. Plans for hundreds of flats in tower blocks up to 20 storeys high on the Aylesham Centre and Morrisons site in Peckham town centre have attracted thousands of signatures in opposition.

When asked if such tall buildings belong in Peckham, Fahnbulleh talks about the need for such developments to be ‘in sync’ with the local area. But what she says is ‘critical’ is the amount of affordable housing such developments provide and the economic benefits to local businesses.

So is she happy with the number of affordable homes in the Aylesham Centre plans (35 per cent, including 25 per cent social)? “I would like to see more,” she says.

“What I’m interested in with an incoming Labour government coming is whether there’s a negotiation that can be had there that might allow us to uplift the amount of affordable housing in that scheme.”

For now, it’s uncertain. Labour still has an election to win. When I ask Fahnbulleh what she’s currently reading, she says a biography of Starmer by journalist and ex-Labour advisor and journalist Tom Baldwin. It’s a ‘fascinating insight into Keir’ she says. She laughs, insists she’s not being sycophantic. Unlike some of the shadow cabinet, she never worked with Starmer. “Like everyone else you’re trying to understand your boss.”

Who is running in Peckham?

• Jennifer Blake – Independent
• Miatta Fahnbulleh – Labour and Co-operative Party
• Stefan David Harvey – Independent
• Mariatu Kargbo – Workers Revolutionary Party
• Alex Kerr – Rejoin EU
• Ben Mascall – Conservative and Unionist Party
• Olusola Oni – The Yoruba Party in the UK
• Linda Purcell – Reform UK
• Claire Frances Sheppard – Green Party
• David Watson – Liberal Democrats

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