Mayoral Candidate Siobhan Benita on a Conscious Future for Our City;
Interview by NEO 10Y
As a human being actively trying to manifest a utopian future through consciousness, art and my voice, my path has started to cross with some really invaluable leaders. A month ago at a cannabis summit in London, I was privy to a panel discussion with Siobhan Benita who is the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London. We spoke briefly that day, but connected pretty immediately on values for the future of our influential global city, and her perspective on many intersections of her campaign.
I am certain London is ready for a female Mayor who stands for progress, has the experience to deliver and genuinely represents the multicultural city that we are. The day we did this interview was the third time I met Siobhan Benita. We have formed a habit of hugging on greeting each other, which says a lot about a politician in the midst of a media circus around the corona virus.
Her passion for and knowledge of the city is palpable. She begins to talk about ideas of making “public spaces open to the public 24/7” and the importance of “reusing the spaces that we’ve got”. There was a sense of wanting to keep the nocturnal elements of London alive, something that had historically been so integral to the personality of the city that had somewhat dissipated over recent decades.
Siobhan’s understanding and passion about diverse ideas and niche communities was already demonstrable, more so than any other politician I have ever heard speak before. She was enthusiastic about the fact that there were three women showing her around the Museum of London building site before our meeting, which she noted is a rarity in such a male-dominated industry.
I wanted to know what Siobhan felt she had learnt from the current Mayor, Sadiq Khan who is the first Muslim and ethnic minority mayor that the city of London has had.
“Every mayor has done things to make this city better. A lot of the things we are still seeing now are because of the work that Ken Livingstone did, as he had that big vision, he had the privilege of being the first, who started from an empty sheet.
“I think every Mayor has done stuff to improve London’s environment, to tackle congestion and pollution issues. I think with Sadiq, he has focussed very much on values which I think is a good thing.
“My take on that is, if you like those values, then you will love mine, because I am not just in that space, I will also take those values and deliver on them.”
Siobhan grew up voting Labour, but says Khan “has been disappointing on the bold progressive steps that London wants.
“If you’re not going to do it in London, you’re not going to do it anywhere.”
As a technology enthusiast, she’s also adamant that facial recognition as it currently stands is not ready for roll out to the level to which it has taken place, and is one of the few politicians to acknowledge the ramifications of this on race and privilege.
Talking about the key goals of her campaign, she knows that she can create a London that is safer, that is greener, but one thing Siobhan says she is really proud of is her campaign to create a kinder London.
“I think kindness goes to the heart of the other two and if you look at policy making through the well-being approach which has already been adopted in New Zealand, you start making different policy decisions which place a different value on people’s mental health as well as their physical health.
“You wouldn’t have the rough sleeping numbers that we have at the moment in London, because you wouldn’t accept that level of homelessness in a city like London. You wouldn’t even have things like homelessness, lack of affordable housing and even things like crime and knife crime.
“I think that a well-being approach would make you change the way you do things, but actually you can look at less obvious things like our daily commute, in London, how stressful it is and there is survey after survey where people say the most frustrating thing about living in London is how bad the commute is. If you had a wellbeing approach, we would have better conversations about how we upgrade our transport systems as well.”
This reminded me about how the system is so heavily built around the 9-5 construct, so I asked Siobhan if she would consider vocalising with regards to a focus on more flexible working.
She agrees, and shares a story about when she was managing teams on different schedules.
“It shouldn’t matter when you do your work or where you do your work as long as it is done to the standard that we’ve agreed and to the deadlines that we’ve set.”
She confirmed that this built up more trust but that human nature meant that her teams gravitated to wanting to be together a couple of times a week anyway for the shared goals.
Siobhan is a mother to two Gen-Z daughters – the eldest is vegan – who she notes have influenced her greatly in terms of forward thinking and compassion.
“This goes to the heart of the kindness and compassion agenda. Being aware of the impact that your decisions have on everybody else around you, what you eat wear to what you wear and what you buy. We’re far more conscious than we used to be.”
She continues and makes sure to acknowledge her own privilege, saying: “In the position that I am in as a public leader, you can really make a difference by looking at a well-being approach to budgeting and by placing compassion at the heart.”
At one point during the interview the wider Liberal Democrat team walked past and I paid attention to the diversity quota which felt representative, they also took me on the tour of the offices which echoed what I’d already seen.
Siobhan’s mum is from India and dad is from Cornwall and she goes into detail on how she has lived a multicultural history and childhood, and it is reflective of her role and purpose in society.
She talks about how former leader Jo Swinson was on the receiving end of a lot of misogynistic attacks during the election campaign, and how from first-hand experience she feels the Labour party has a problem with misogyny.
“They have a lot of misogyny, and it’s a really big issue for them”.
She also comments on how the far left can be as toxic as the far right when it comes to fighting online and online abuse.
“On social media the worst abuse that I get is from the left, not from the right,” she continues. “They talk about appearance but the left also don’t like a liberal talking about things that they think they own.”
It is worth noting that Siobhan Benita ran an as an independent candidate in the 2012 Mayor of London election. She received close to 300,000 votes (1st and 2nd preference votes), finishing extremely close to the Liberal Democrat and Green Party candidates. This was a remarkable achievement for a previously unknown individual with no party machine.
She joined the Liberal Democrats in 2016, the morning of the EU Referendum result. She is passionately opposed to Brexit and is also dismayed at the increasing influence of the extreme factions of both the Conservative and Labour parties.
I wanted to talk a little about cannabis, as it is why Siobhan and I first met, so, health benefits aside, I asked whether she was pro-legalisation.
“For me absolutely it’s the safety issues that are what is driving me, and the work that I have done on the youth violence commission. There is clear evidence of the link between the likelihood of a young person getting pulled into serious violence and their exposure to the illegal drugs market.
“I am very much putting it forward from a public health approach and I think any candidate that is saying they are tackling knife crime, without saying they want to look at drugs reform, isn’t doing everything that they can to tackle knife crime.
“If you legalise cannabis, and I know there are a whole lot of issues around other drugs, but it is a business like any other business.”
Siobhan is also working with Brian Paddock, who was the officer who tried to decriminalise cannabis in Brixton.
Cognitive awareness of the wrongs of colonial past is a must-have quality for any conscious leader, and I knew that Siobhan’s multi ethnicity would bring an advantage to dealing with our current reality.
“When people talk about London’s diversity, I feel like I am living it all the time”, she says with pride. She’s grown up in different communities and has an Anglo-Indian background, her mum was born in India and she grew up surrounded by multi-cultural people. Her husband is also French-Algerian which she says “brings in a different dimension as well.”
When asked if she is pro Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ rights, she also vehemently agrees.
Going into more depth, she says: “Where am I distinct form other candidates, when it comes to Black Lives Matter, is that I do not think there is enough outrage around inequality, racism, stop and search in London despite all the evidence that this disproportionately affects black boys all the time.”
“Why are we not angry more about that and why aren’t we saying anything as public leaders.”
I previously spoke with Leroy Logan MBE, who was once a superintendent in the Metropolitan police and chair of the Black Police Association Charitable Trust. Logan was an advisor to Sadiq Khan at the last mayoral election four years ago. But now he’s backing Siobhan as he sees her as the person with the ideas and expertise to stop the escalating knife crime crisis.
“Khan’s heavy-handed approach has meant communities losing trust in the police – confidence in police is at an all-time low in certain neighbourhoods – and the public are left feeling they are over policed but under protected. He has also failed to make any significant improvements in improving police diversity especially at the most senior levels and failed to realise there is a correlation between police diversity and community trust.”
“I’ve worked with Siobhan on the All Party Youth Violence Commission and have been impressed by her fresh approach and practical ideas. She also has the leadership skills and ability to collaborate that will help turn the tide of the capital’s knife crime crisis. She is the mayor that London needs.”
Siobhan is clear that Khan isn’t doing enough to tackle knife crime.
“There’s so much more that a Mayor of London can do – and yet this mayor isn’t. It’s heartbreaking every time another child loses their life. For the sake of the families of all those who’ve died, and for every family that now fears for their own children, we have to take radical action to halt this horrific epidemic. I believe my focus on prevention rather than just increasing police numbers can start to do that. And my door is open to anyone who has a potential solution they’d like to offer.”
We got onto talking about LGBTQ+ rights and how Siobhan had a tent and was in attendance at UK Black Pride last year, a nice synchronicity.
She believes that now – like never before in her lifetime – it is time for people who support moderate, sensible and honest politics to come together in a coordinated manner.
I went on to ask Siobhan how she intends to appeal to people that want their investments protected.
“We all have to look to a different future, and actually for me, I am pro-business, and I actually think there are massive opportunities for businesses to play a really important part in that greener, kinder, more conscious future.”
“It’s time to “embrace the future and there are massive opportunities in the new way that people want to do business, and big money is already shifting in that direction”.
Voting is on May 7th 2020 and it is really important that we reiterate that this is not a two horse race. Siobhan Benita calls for more education about the voting system and this is part of her campaign.
It is not like a general election, it is not a first past the post system, we have two votes each, and so it is the one election where you can genuinely vote with your heart, with your first preference.
“I am building bridges that the party hasn’t but before, but we desperately need that progressive force in politics” she admits and from her social media and campaign thus far, this is evident and really sets her apart from the pack as a former independent runner, now with party- backing.
As a Liberal Democrat she has just a tenth of the budget of Tory, Labour and the independent candidate. She’s fighting a traditional machine as a semi-insurgent and Siobhan Benita is proving that it is time for a candidate that is truly representative of our city.
“We desperately need a progressive force in politics and i don’t see the other parties fulfilling it at the moment” she concludes.
Vote on May 7th, 2020 – keep the Tory austerity far from London and vote for a city with love at its heart. Vote for Siobhan Benita.