Dave Raval

When I was selected as the Lib Dem candidate for Hackney South and Shoreditch in late 2008, I made a commitment to move into the constituency. I am pleased to say that I have now done this – I’ve moved to Amhurst Road, near to both Hackney Downs and Hackney Central stations.

Why did I do this? Well, it is not a legal requirement for an MP. Bizarrely, you can stand for Parliament in the UK so long as you live anywhere in the UK or the Republic of Ireland! Neither of the Labour MPs for Hackney (Diane Abbott and Meg Hillier) live in the area they represent. The majority of Tory MPs don’t. To be fair, some Lib Dems don’t either, though most do.

Clearly, the most important thing is to be good at your job and to represent your constituents. I didn’t use to live far away (I was in Walthamstow) so I could have done this from there. But personally I felt that, to do justice to being a candidate or an MP – to really know what life is like in Hackney, and howlocal people feel – I should live there. I also want to be accessible –  if people have problems and want to talk to me, I’m local.

So, here I am! Now let’s just hope that the mortgage interest rates stay low, property prices in Hackney are a lot higher than Walthamstow...