On 10 October 2024, residents in the South Acton ward will take part in a by-election to vote for a new ward councillor.
EALING.NEWS has asked all candidates standing 7 questions about who they are, what they hope to deliver and why they want residents to vote for them.
David Hofman standing for Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition in South Acton answers the 7 questions:
Tell us a bit about yourself, your priorities for the ward and why you want to be councillor for South Acton?
I am a member of the Socialist Party and Unite the union, and a delegate to Ealing Trades Council.
I was the secretary and constituency agent for Coventry Labour MP Dave Nellist. Alongside him I was expelled from the Labour Party because Dave was one of the leaders of the Anti-Poll Tax campaign.
I subsequently had a career in medical research as a data programmer. I retired 2 years ago.
I participated in the campaign to retain Ealing libraries, and other campaigns to save local services. During the recent national strike wave, I visited local picket lines in support, including the mail sorting office, tube stations and local schools.
My priorities for the ward would be to help the pensioners who have lost their Winter Fuel Allowance (WFA), and tackle the housing crisis. I’m standing in South Acton because Ealing’s Labour Council, despite its huge majority, has refused to stand up to 14 years of Tory/Lib Dem austerity; it has meekly dumped all the cuts demanded by Westminster onto the shoulders of Ealing residents. We need a fundamental change of attitude in the Council.
What motivates you?
We live in a broken society. Yet Britain is the 5th richest country in the world. The idea, promoted by this Tory-lite Labour Government, that there’s not enough money to keep pensioners warm in winter, is nonsense. There’s plenty of money in Britain – only it’s concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority.
50 super-rich families own £500bn, as much as half the British population! If £1.2bn, the projected saving from removing the winter fuel payment, was taken off these families, none of them would die – indeed they wouldn’t even notice!
When the Tories considered abolishing WFP in 2017, research by the Labour Party revealed that such a measure would hasten the early death of 4,000 pensioners. Now they’re in government, they couldn’t care less. Unfortunately, Ealing’s 3 Labour MPs betrayed their pensioner constituents by voting for its abolition.
At present the working class in Ealing, and nationally, have no political party that represents their needs and aspirations. This election, standing under the TUSC umbrella, is one step to help bring a new workers’ party into existence.
What is your own personal connection to either South Acton or any other part of the borough?
I moved into Acton 26 years ago.
What do you consider to be your 3 top political, work or personal achievements and what impact have they had?
My proudest achievement was working with Dave Nellist MP in his Coventry constituency. Dave won enormous respect from constituents for his principle of ‘A Workers’ MP on a Worker’s Wage’. He took home only the average wage of his constituents. He donated the remainder to local and national campaigns, strike funds and community organisations. He published his financial statement every year, available to all party members and trade unionists. During the Parliamentary recess, he visited trade union branches and community organisations in his constituency to report back on his Parliamentary work, asking if there were any issues people wanted raised in the House of Commons.
This experience showed me how a person wanting to represent the working class – in Parliament or a local Council – should proceed. What a contrast to most Labour MPs today, who on an annual salary of £91,000 have no idea of what it’s like having to live on the breadline. Their only ‘tough choice’ is voting to abolish WFA, forcing on pensioners the far tougher choice of whether to heat or eat.
My top personal achievement was to obtain a degree in Statistics as a mature student, which enabled me to start a completely new career in medical research.
What do you consider to be the top 3 challenges South Acton faces and how will you as a councillor address them?
The immediate challenge will be withdrawal of WFA. I would demand that Ealing Council step in and fund emergency heating grants from its enormous reserves for the pensioners affected.
However, there is one key challenge facing all Ealing residents, including those of South Acton – the need for Ealing Council to demand that Starmer returns all the funds stolen from Ealing during the years of austerity. Since 2010, funding from Westminster has fallen by 55% in real terms, according to the council.
I would call on the council to prepare a no-cuts needs budget next year, using its borrowing powers and reserves. At the same time, it would need to organise a borough-wide mass campaign for decent funding. This would include rallies, public meetings, marches etc to mobilise the support of residents – which I’m sure would be forthcoming.
Ealing Council should have the same aims that Liverpool City Council had 40 years ago, when the latter forced Thatcher’s Tory Government to provide an extra £60m for new housing, jobs, schools and other services. For example, between 1983 and 1987, 5,000 new houses were built.
If this kind of campaign was organised, and Westminster gave Ealing the level of funding it once had, then as a councillor I would be able to start addressing the housing and other local service issues in South Acton. Otherwise, we will be facing yet further rounds of cuts, closures, redundancies, outsourcing of services etc.
What do you love about South Acton and the borough of Ealing?
15 years ago, Ealing was a Tory-controlled council, and the Tories held the constituency which included Acton. Today the Tories aren’t even the official opposition in the council, and the constituency is now a safe Labour seat. If Ealing voters were able to decimate the Tories so drastically, they have the potential to swing further to the left and remove Labour!
How accessible will you be to South Acton residents and how can they get in contact with you now and if elected how will you ensure you are accessible to them in the future?
Too many candidates, notably from the major parties, seem to stand for council to get ahead in their “political careers”. But we need councillors who want to campaign to improve our areas and stand up in the interests of the 99%. That’s why I think we need to build a new working-class political voice, to stand up to Labour and the Tories, and challenge the growing problems of housing, public services and more. I will continue to be an active campaigner during and after this election. People can get in touch via ealingtusc@gmail.com.
Click here for all Ealing Central and Acton candidates standing.
