TUSC announces parliamentary candidate for Hackney South and Shoreditch

Brian Debus

Brian Debus has been selected as the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition’s (TUSC) candidate for Hackney South and Shoreditch.

He will challenge the incumbent, Labour MP Meg Hillier, who has held the seat since 2005.

Originally from Birmingham, Debus has lived in Victoria Park for 14 years. He works as an assistant in Shoreditch Library and is Chair of Hackney Council Unison. It is his the first time he is running as a prospective parliamentary candidate.

Debus, who has been involved with the TUSC since the party’s inception in 2010 said: “I felt it was necessary to start to challenge the status quo, because none of the parties are prepared to challenge the system and are all operating within the confines of what profit dictates.”

“I don’t use that as my starting point, I go from the basis of what working people need; a good education system, the protection of the health service, jobs and homes.”

He named housing as his priority for the constituency of Hackney South. Debus said he would introduce rent caps and begin a mass council house building programme to stop people “being driven out of their homes”.

“One of the first principles of the TUSC is the total opposition to all cuts and privatisation. All parties are guilty of implementing cuts, and councils have done nothing to prevent them,” he said.

When asked what Councils could do to stop cuts from central government he said: “They should stand up and fight. If they are not prepared to they should stand aside.”

If elected, Debus would campaign for a London minimum wage of £10 an hour and oppose zero-hour contracts, the scapegoating of immigrants and the privatisation of the NHS.

He would only take an average wage from his MP’s salary, the rest would be donated to the TUSC.

Brian Debus can be followed on Twitter and on Facebook.