The path to Downing Street runs through Hendon
North-West London seat fierce battleground between Labour and Tories
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
Hendon, described as a bellwether seat between the Labour and Conservative parties, is up for grabs again in the July 2024 general election as eight candidates across the political spectrum fight it out.
Besides the Green, Liberal Democrats, Labour and Conservative hopefuls, this time voters have the option of picking from a Social Democrat, a Rejoin EU, a Workers Party of Britain (a late substitute candidate from the previously announced person) or a Reform UK applicant.
Labour’s Andrew Dismore won the seat in 1997 as part of that year’s Labour landslide. But in 2010 Matthew Offord scored a shock victory for the Conservatives by just 106 votes. In 2019 he had increased that majority to 4,230 over his Labour opponent, David Pinto-Duschinsky. But in May 2023 Offord announced he would be standing down at the 2024 election — and Pinto-Duschinsky is now on his second attempt to become Hendon’s MP, fighting off the challenge from the new Conservative candidate, Ameet Jogia.
With a large Jewish population, plus some very deprived neighbourhoods in the West Hendon part of the constituency, Hendon is a fascinating battleground. Undoubtedly the most Orthodox of the candidates is Reform UK’s Joshua Pearl, formerly a member of the Conservative Party, who says he decided to run “because I felt that someone needed to stand up for right-wing views in Hendon and I felt that we weren’t getting anything, so I put my hat into the ring”.
He described the previous MP, Offord, “as part of the Conservative Party which has been extremely liberal in almost every way, in terms of raising taxes, tripled immigration, the way they have allowed gender ideology to be taught in schools…all of these things show that they [the Conservatives] are not right-wing any more”.
A trainee solicitor who is also a part-time Jewish studies assistant at Kisharon special needs school, Pearl is brimming with confidence and says that he’s ready to take part in hustings with candidates from any party, including George Galloway’s Workers Party. “Fundamentally the Workers Party are Communists, and it’s very easy to argue with a Communist”.
On the doorstep, he says he has found it “very interesting” to hear what concerns people have, ranging “from the cost of car insurance to the kind of weedkiller being used by Barnet Council”. When Gaza has been raised, he says his response is that “it breaks my heart to see the loss of life, especially children, but I don’t see any good solution to the conflict”.
The Conservative Party obviously believes Hendon is an important seat as it has picked Ameet Jogia, a political adviser to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (also looking after faith, race and communities), as its candidate. Young and fresh-faced, Jogia is a Hindu like Mr Sunak, and is the son of East African immigrants who eventually settled in Hendon, where the candidate was born.
It wasn’t an easy start for Jogia: his parents’ business went bust, and for a time the family was homeless, ending up on a council estate. It’s an appealing back story and certainly Jogia, unlike the prime minister, knows what it’s like to be poor.
He has spent 10 years as a councillor in Edgware and says Hendon is “very special” to him, jumping at the chance to succeed Offord. He is about as different from Offord as can be imagined, and has been working hard to engage with the diversity of different communities in Hendon — not least the Jewish community.
He’s at pains to clarify that he stepped down from his role in Downing Street the day the election was called, so any “bad optics” currently on show by Rishi Sunak cannot be attributed to Ameet Jogia.
Unsurprisingly, however, he is defensive about some Conservative ideology, not least Sunak’s insistence that he will, if he forms the next government, enact the Rwanda policy of sending illegal immigrants to that country. As the son of immigrants, and doorstepping many families in Hendon who themselves come from immigrant stock, Jogia nevertheless believes wholeheartedly in the Rwanda scheme.
“When my parents were given 90 days to leave Uganda”, says Jogia, “they didn’t jump into a boat. They went and queued outside the British High Commission. There’s a process, and we are talking about targeting those who abuse the process”.
Hendon, says Jogia, “is the most diverse constituency in the country, and I am proud of that diversity. I’m a practising Hindu, and I have grown up with Jewish neighbours and friends, members of the Muslim community… we have never had any disagreements, and I want to promote that”.
He admits, however, that it’s not all plain sailing when it comes to talking about Gaza. “After October 7 I spoke up very strongly for the Jewish community and Israel, because it was the right thing to do”. That’s not been easy, once such views were expressed on line: “During the pro-Palestinian protests, I’ve been mobbed, and I’ve experienced how intimidating it can be, just for my beliefs. I am scared; I have a young family and people know where I live. I spoke to Mike Freer [the outgoing MP for Finchley and Golders Green] and he told me to be careful”.
Nevertheless, Jogia — who has been spoken of, admiringly, by some in the Jewish community — says he is “passionate about public service”. His biggest challenge, he thinks, “is apathy”.
Hoping that any vestiges of “Downing Street glamour” can be overturned is Labour’s David Pinto-Duschinsky, a management consultant making his second attempt at becoming Hendon’s MP. In fact it is his third try at getting into Parliament: in 2015 he unsuccessfully challenged the then Chancellor, George Osborne, for his Tatton, Cheshire, seat. Pinto-Duschinsky himself is a former special adviser to the late Alistair Darling, Chancellor to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The candidate’s father, Michael, was born in Hungary in 1943, to a family who had produced seven generations of rabbis. So the Hendon hopeful is not only the son of a Holocaust survivor but can point to a glittering rabbinical background.
“There’s a huge difference between my first run at becoming MP in Hendon and now”, says Pinto-Duschinsky, pointing to what he says is a fundamental change in the Labour Party in relation to antisemitism, spearheaded by Sir Keir Starmer.
“Because of these changes, Labour is now back in the service of working people, a party that all can support and feel comfortable with. Bu there are other differences: the country is in a terrible state. People are crying out for change, but they have been let down, to the point where nothing works any more.
“And the other change is that we are living through one of the most challenging periods in my lifetime to be Jewish in Britain. I’ve knocked on thousands of doors, and people are telling me that they are taking their mezuzot off their doors, or that they are scared to wear kippot on the street, or that they’ve told their kids to take their blazers off on their way to and from school, because they have magen Davids on them.
“So since the barbarity of October 7, we are facing collective trauma as a community — and a huge surge in antisemitism. It’s breaking my heart, and has made me more determined to stand up for our community.”
Pinto-Duschinsky says he has been active in denouncing antisemitism on social media and has attended numerous marches and vigils held by the Jewish community. And he adds that the choice in Hendon is very stark: “More of the same, if you vote Conservative — five more years of things not working — or change if you vote Labour.”
He says his doorstep conversations across Hendon highlight people’s concerns about security, the NHS, and the cost of living. And he, too, has warm words about political opponent Mike Freer and describes his decision to stand down as “a great loss”; but Pinto-Duschinsky is still determined to engage in public service.
“I’ve had people say they won’t vote for me because I’m Jewish and we know that trust in politics is at an all-time low. But I think it’s our duty to engage, and I will be fighting for every vote: Hendon is one of the most marginal seats in London. The path to Downing Street runs through Hendon.”
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