When the UK finally goes to the polls, the British-Pakistani-Fijian daughter of a car mechanic could win the seat that Iain Duncan Smith has held for more than 30 years. Some would see that as proof that anyone can succeed – but not Shaheen
It was 12 December 2019; the first winter general election in Britain since 1923. Faiza Shaheen walked into Waltham Forest town hall in north-east London. The academic, economist, self-described inequality geek and Labour parliamentary candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green was about to find out if she had pulled off a feat so close to impossible that the odds were one in 10m. Had she – a working-class, Muslim, British-Pakistani-Fijian daughter of a car mechanic – toppled the former leader of the Conservative party, Iain Duncan Smith, in a seat that he had held for 27 years? A seat in which Tory values were so enshrined, it was previously held – albeit the boundaries had changed over the years – by Norman Tebbit and Winston Churchill. It was the perfect David versus Goliath battle. And then David lost.
“It was crushing,” says Shaheen. “One of those out-of-body experiences. They show you the results just before you go on stage and I was like: ‘Oh my God, we’ve lost.’ I could see my party, all these young people with so much hope on their faces, and I couldn’t look at them. When I saw Iain Duncan Smith go up, I just thought: ‘How can this be the outcome?’”
