Barry Edwards is the Reform UK candidate in the Battersea constituency for the 2024 General Election. We and our partners at Clapham Junction insider are inviting the all the election candidates to short interviews – so you can learn more about who they are, what they believe in, and their plans to improve Battersea and help its residents. Details of all the candidates, and the other interviews, are here.

Could you introduce yourself to our readers? Hi, my name is Barry Edwards and I am a Management Consultant and Chartered Environmentalist.

Tell us something about you our readers may not know… I am a BS EN ISO International Standards Lead Auditor, which means that I am a suitably qualified and experienced person to verify compliance within evidenced management systems

On your bio, you say that you run a business in the borough. What makes the Battersea constituency special for you? I don’t run a business in Wandsworth Borough, but in its next-door neighbour the London Bough of Richmond upon Thames. What makes Battersea special for me is its relationship with the Thames Estuary, Battersea Park, Falcon Park, Heathbrook Park, Clapham Common and all the other wonderful small open spaces that make it such a Green constituency.

In the 2016 EU referendum, 70% of our constituency voted to remain, one of the highest in the country. There are still strong feelings about Brexit. On your website, you pledge to “work with [people], learn from them and represent their views, aspirations and requirements”. What do you have to offer to Battersea constituents in this context? Now that we have secured our own sovereignty and Parliament has the final decision which decides the evolution of society, the environment and our economy, I am a sustainability expert with the training and expertise to ensure that these are balanced towards meeting the needs of Battersea, without compromising the needs of future generations. It was really a shame that there was so much propaganda on both sides and people unfortunately came to believed that the EU could make better decisions about the UK’s national interest than we could.

The cost of living is a real worry for many of our readers. Since Labour took control in 2022, the Council has implemented the London Living Wage for its staff and contractors. Do you think it was the right move and what do you think is the best approach for the government to provide support? I think that the London Living Wage is substantially short of what is sustainable. London is a very expensive place to live, with house prices and rents increasing year on year. Reform will raise the personal tax allowance to £20,000 per annum, lifting huge numbers of young people, pensioners, and people on low incomes, in fact, taking 41% of Londoners out of being taxed altogether.

Reform will re-evaluate the living wage so that it is a realistic figure, in line with the real cost of living in the capital. Reform will reduce the competition for employment, therefore increasing the value of work, increasing wages for most people in Battersea.

With the busiest station at the heart of Battersea, public transport is used by the vast majority of people in the area. What would you like to see improved for that in Battersea? I would like to see TfL have improved standards and that these are measured against accountable criteria. This is an essential and, in some cases, critical means of transportation and over the years standards have been falling and prices have been increasing.

We need a railway, tube and bus services that are clean, safe, at the appropriate frequency and on time. This has been sadly lacking and the leadership and management of this service, has simply not been there. Reform would do a full assessment and put in place, if necessary, an Act of Parliament to ensure these standards are met going forward.

Housing is also a local concern. Recently we have seen some proposals for huge tower blocks exceeding ‘local plan’ rules – which justify their scale on the grounds that they also include a share of affordable housing. Where is the right balance between providing the social housing we need, and making sure that our urban environment remains one people want to live in? The correct balance of society, environment and economics is to meet the needs of today, without compromising the needs of future generations. That balance can only be set by ensure that we use “air-space development” to meet the serge of demand force by increasing population and then move to a sensible protection of the critical spaces such and farmland, open-spaces and National parks, to ensure food security and biodiversity.

Air-space development is a process which build on existing properties to provide additional accommodation. If homeowners were allowed to develop above their existing homes, an extra storey, there would not be a housing shortage, or the need to build any more new houses. The homeowners could decide if this was right for them, their properties would go up in value and they could get a rent for these developments. This would be affordable reducing rent and young people would have somewhere to live without harming the environment.

You cannot just keep building houses, you will start to build on Green Belt, farmland, and our Parks, so this essential land uses should have Legislative protection, to guarantee food security. This would put family first, as the children of the property owner could then prioritise their own children to have a place of their own, or rent out the additional flat. This would also reduce social care as the children would be nearby if case of emergency and any other properties could offer this as rented accommodation.

You have a special interest in environmental issues and have said, “people should be on the side of the planet that provides all the things we need.” What are the most important measures the future government should commit to in order to address the climate emergency? I wish everyone when they consider the future to make one simple calculation. It is all based on mathematics and the arithmetic is not that difficult. If you have a steady growing thing, of any type and a recognised rate over at finite period, say 1% per year, this would cause the item to double in size. This is called the doubling time. We are taking about ordinary steady growth. If you apply this to population, then a population growing at 1.4% per year would double in 60 years. This is what Battersea has to look forward to as it is growing at that rate.

If this is allowed to continue, then not only the population, but all services including the NHS, schools, housing sewage treatment water supply, energy and tolerance would all have to double to simply keep pace. If these support services did not increase then the level of service would halve. But you say the pie could grow in size, so everything doesn’t have to be shared. However, using current verified projection the economy is flat Zero % growth, yet the population is still growing at 1.4%. and even if the economy could grow at that rate, the only place where this huge need of extra space could come from would be to build on our parks.

Therefore, the single most dangerous thing to our prosperity is more people – More is Poor. This massive increase the population also affects the climate emergency because anthropomorphic climate change is caused by people and their consumption behaviours, and the more people the more carbon footprint, so More is also Climate Change. This might be poorly expressed as the immigration election, but as the only way that this population growth in the UK is growing is through immigration, therefore Over-Population is Immigration, so despite this awkwardness in terminology, it is absolutely accurate.

The situation in Gaza is a concern for many voters, and specifically in London where many have a strong view. As a former journalist with exposure in the Middle East, you have also a specific experience. What do you think should be the government’s position? I have not been a journalist in the Middle East, but fully understand the situation and consequences of the Hamas War. The Governments position should be that it is entirely correct that Israel should be able to defend itself. What would we do in the UK, if the country was attacked 1200 people were killed and over 200 hostages were taken? We would defend ourselves, but what if the perpetrators were a recognised terrorist organisation that stated that it would do it again and would not be satisfied until our nation was destroyed? This would pose an existential threat to our entire way of life, this is the only way to see this conflict in Israel and act accordingly.

Israel is an ally and we must ensure democracy, the rule of law, individuality, tolerance and the respect for other faiths is maintained. Therefore, antisemitic behaviour should not be tolerated, all terrorist organisations should not be allowed to win and peace and mutual respect for both communities and cultures should be helped to return as soon as possible. However, this can only be achieved through the hostages being returned and the support for terrorists to be discouraged.

And finally – why should our readers vote for you? Because Labour was in power for 14 years and crashed the economy, then the Tories did the exact same. LibDems have worked with both Labour and Tory and nothing got any better. As a professional Environmentalist I can state expertly that the Greens don’t understand sustainability and the SNP and Plaid Cymru are both raving Nationalist who shouldn’t be allowed to be in control of anything.

Given these fact the only reasonable therefore rational choice is to choose something else. None of the above. It just so happens that that change is Reform and this is not he short straw, it is the best straw as Reform has common sense and will balance society, environment and economics to find the good life for everyone no matter their nationality or culture. Britain needs Reform, Battersea needs Reform, as this will lead to a more sensible, realistic, sustainable Life for All.

You may also want to see Barry’s own website, which is here. This is one of a series of interviews, where we aim to speak to all of the candidates for the Battersea constituency in the July 2024 general election, the others are here. Election day is Thursday 4th July, remember that this time you need to take Photo ID (with 22 acceptable forms of ID).