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Labour parliamentary hopeful Purna Sen has launched her election campaign. Here’s what she had to say to Latest…

Labour parliamentary candidate Purna Sen kicked off her election campaign last week with a gathering of friends and supporters in a Brighton seafront hotel. She was given the endorsement of the party’s deputy leader and former Minister for Women and Equality, Harriet Harman.

Dr Sen, 54, moved to Brighton five years ago, having first visited as a child when her brother was at Sussex University. She had long wanted to live here and now relishes the chance to challenge Green MP Caroline Lucas for the Brighton Pavilion seat in the House of Commons.

Sitting MPs are often regarded as having something of an advantage at election time. So even with some encouraging ballots, polls and bookmakers’ odds, Labour will have to work hard if the party is to win
back the seat. A candidate of Dr Sen’s calibre could have looked for a constituency that offered a better bet. But she said: “I’m standing where I live. I could have tried for a safer seat somewhere else but I want to live here, represent here and grow old here.”

Her goal is to be a Labour MP elected at the same time as a Labour government. She accepts that her Green Party rival has worked hard and said: “She’s impressed some people and really angered others.

But she’s one person working on her own. The people of Brighton can choose one person on her own or someone working in a party in government.

“We’re a party of government. We can deliver – not just make promises.” She said that only Labour could make real change to protect the environment, promote equality and improve housing. She added: “A lot of people want to get rid of this government, and the only realistic way to do that is to vote Labour.”

One of the challenges that Dr Sen faces is that – unlike many candidates – she holds down a job outside politics. “I have to earn a crust!” she said. The same obstacle faces the Conservative candidate in Brighton Pavilion, Clarence Mitchell. Both work in London. Dr Sen said:

“He seems a very lovely guy, and I’ve bumped into him here in Brighton and in London.” But she is confident that, certainly in Pavilion, there won’t be a swing towards the Tories. She’s treating it as a head-to-head contest.

Her job – as deputy director of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) at the London School of Economics – has added to her experience in dealing with policy-making at a high level. She was previously head of human rights at the Commonwealth, advising governments across the globe.

“I could have tried for a safer seat somewhere else but I want to live here, represent here and grow old here”

She has teaching commitments until December and is running a research project about women in public life which started last December. She said: “I’m asking, how did they get there? What obstacles did they overcome? Where did they find support? My first visiting fellow is a former president of Malawi (the country’s only female president). What we forget is how much progress we’ve made. I’m very excited about it.”

No sooner had she launched her campaign in Brighton than she was heading for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The Games begin tomorrow (Wednesday). She was speaking as the chair of the Kaleidoscope Trust on Friday at a conference timed to coincide with the Games. The subject was LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex) rights.

She said: “The Kaleidoscope Trust works with LGBT activists in countries where it is not safe to come out. The Commonwealth disproportionately houses countries that criminalise same-sex activity.” Of 53 member states, 42 outlaw homosexuality.

The penalty is life imprisonment in at least seven Commonwealth countries, and the death penalty in parts of northern Nigeria and rural Pakistan.

The fight for human rights is also happening closer to home.

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, is widely believed to have sacked Dominic Grieve as Attorney-General in the government reshuffle last week because he opposed watering down Britain’s commitment to the European Court of Human Rights.

Dr Sen said: “Britain has been key among countries that have crafted human rights protections over many decades. That a government promoting British values wants to roll back these protections is astonishing.

“Roll on May 2015 when we can reshuffle the PM.”