Tanushka Marah

I have committed to 5 pledges described on the first page of the website. As the movement grows, and we hold more assemblies, the detail of the pledges will grow. The following are policies I am standing on that have grown out of the movements for peace, for public services, and real democracy.

Palestine

My recent activism and leadership for Palestine locally is the first reason why I am standing as an Independent Candidate for Parliament.

I stand for a Free Palestine.  Both main parties, Conservative and Labour, refuse to back sanctions and stop selling UK arms to Israel during its genocide in Gaza. The UK’s involvement in Middle East wars, and ever rising military spending, is not making us safer. We need a new foreign policy based on peace and justice.

As a British Palestinian, I feel duty bound to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, an end to UK support for Israel’s genocide, ending arms sales to Israel, and an end to the occupation of Palestinian lands. The UK must impose an arms embargo and economic sanctions on Israel until it ceases human rights violations and the illegal occupation. We must also comply with the rulings of the ICC and the ICJ, including enforcing arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. I will continue to campaign and speak up on Israeli apartheid and US-UK complicity until Palestine achieves self determination and freedom.

The NHS and health care – watch our manifesto conversation here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ_JET8RstQ&t=7s

Health care, including mental health care, is by far the most popular subject that constituents have written to me about. It is very clear that GP services, the NHS, mental health services and the social care system need a huge amount of investment. Healthcare workers and social care workers are the bedrock of the system and need a substantial pay rise.

We are losing thousands of skilled medical staff to other countries and this must be reversed by a recruitment drive and pay uplift.

I support a National Care Service to replace our privatised, profit based social care system which is failing our old people, vulnerable and those with special needs.

One of my 5 pledges is that I stand for taxing the super wealthy and corporations, which involves cracking down on tax avoidance and offshore accounts, and putting an end to privatisation, to save our public services. 

The NHS is being sold off by the Conservatives, and Labour supports this disastrous policy which has caused the worst ever crisis in our healthcare system. We need to end privatisation, end offshore tax avoidance, introduce a wealth tax, and restore pay levels for all our public sector workers. 

Restore NHS funding through taxing the super rich and offshore billions
• Catch up funding to make up for Tory underfunding and put it in line with other European countries.
• Fair and improved pay for all NHS staff
• Invest urgently in mental health services and work to end the stigma of mental illness

End privatisation of NHS
• Bring outsourced contracts back in house
• End the massive profiteering of private health care companies.

Integrating Health and Social Care
• Overhaul the privatised social care system and create a non-profit National Care Service.
• Refocus our NHS on clinical, heath and care needs rather profit.

Invest more in Public Health and reduce health inequalities.
• Stop individualising and victim blaming, acknowledging the social causes of ill health, such as poor housing, poverty, food insecurity.

On Tuesday 18th June we held a public meeting about the NHS and heard from a retired nurse, GP, a midwife and a psychiatrist, sharing hard data about the degradation of our NHS, and then personal stories of patients in their care, and the impact on workers. Here is that meeting: . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ_JET8RstQ&t=7s

Climate Justice – Biodiversity – Access to our land and rivers

We are watching in real time as heatwaves cause heat stress deaths in Greece (Michael Moseley, other tourists out on hikes) and hundreds dying during the Islamic Haj in Saudi Arabia. This is the new reality that is creeping up on us, along with deadly floods and fires. Floods across the world have made millions homeless, and crops are failing due to drought and flood combined. This is the hard evidence that scientists and meteorologists show is made many times more likely by accumulated carbon emissions, which are still rising as global fossil fuel output increases each year.

As a country we must act decisively to reduce emissions with practical policies such as insulating all homes and investing in an affordable renewable energy sector through publicly owned energy companies, investing in public transport, creating new industries that will bring thousands of well paid jobs across the country.

VAT should be completely abolished on renewable energy and the manufacture, installation and maintenance of renewable energy equipment. Fuel duty should be abolished on bio-diesel and other green internal combustion engine fuels.

We need our water back in public hands, and to end the sewage and chemical scandal polluting our rivers and seas. In this constituency, shocking figures from Surfers Against Sewage reported in Feb-Mar 2024 safe to swim days in Hove / Southwick were as low as 3.6 days in 30 days.

We must work to prevent overfishing whilst supporting local fishing communities. We need increased support and better laws to protect our ancient trees and woodlands.

I stand with the environmental movement calling to stop the loss of biodiversity, to work towards the goal of rewilding 30% of our land, for nature friendly farming, support to expand sustainable and nature-based jobs and businesses, empower communities to lead on initiatives and ending all new gas and oil contracts for the North Sea.

Climate Justice means cancelling debts in the poorest countries, challenging destructive mining in the Global South, and restoring land, air, water and people’s livelihoods around the world. Real zero is the only way to prevent a global catastrophe, rather than a corporate-led net zero.

This land is our land

The UK’s land ownership system remains feudal with ownership of huge estates dating back to the time of William the Conqueror and Henry VIII. We need to open up our land and rivers for people to enjoy our natural environment, with right to roam across the country. I support the proposed Access to Nature Bill, and the Right to Roam.

Electoral reform

Only via Proportional Representation (PR) can independent voices be heard in Parliament, and all votes given equal weight. The current first past the post system gives rise to a two party state – Tory or Labour – but most of our votes are not represented in parliament. The UK is the only country – apart from authoritarian Belarus – still using this antidemocratic voting system

There is no place for hereditary peers in the 21st Century, or the stuffing of the House of Lords with political appointees. We need a second house entirely independent of Government – and which represents the British people by gender, income, region, ethnicity and age. I believe that a People’s House made up of normal people chosen like a jury, rather than the House of Lords, is the best second house for a truly democratic society.

Housing for all

I support building more secure, affordable council homes, secure long-term tenancies for renters, taxes on empty homes, and a cap on holiday lets, including Airbnb. The Tories’ right to buy policy must be abolished, so social housing stock is not sold to landlords. I also support rent controls – including a freeze on most rents – to stop excessive rent rises. No-fault evictions must be banned and notice periods extended for end of tenancies. First time buyers and families must be given priority in all new housing developments, sales for second homes restricted, and overseas sales of private homes or flats for investment should be banned.

Public ownership

Privatisation – including mail, water, railways and energy – has failed. We need to bring all these essential services back into democratic public ownership. We need affordable rail fares to encourage more use of the train network and get people out of their cars. The privatisation of Royal Mail has been a disaster with the private management seeking to undermine the universal service, and hike prices. The water companies have taken £72bn plus in profits, failed to invest, and now want to hike water prices to solve the sewage crisis they caused. We need to create publicly owned energy suppliers to drive the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Transport and rail

We face a climate emergency, but most UK journeys are still by car. Our railway system is inefficient and unreliable, the fares are the dearest in Europe. We need a unified rail system under public ownership that runs well, and is a cheaper, more reliable option than the car. This is the way to get people out of their cars and onto trains. Fairs must be simplified and reduced, with free travel for all children under 18. A £50 off-peak monthly ticket for all normal rail services should be introduced, as successfully piloted in Germany. Off-peak UK return fairs should be capped at £100 for any journey. 

Child poverty

4.3 million children (30% of all UK children) were in poverty in 2023, up from 3.6m in 2011. 69% of poor children live in working families. Nearly half of children in families with 3 or more children are in poverty. This can be solved. Lifting the 2-child benefit cap would take 250,000 children out of poverty a year. Perversely, Labour is refusing to do this. Tory cuts closed 1,243 youth clubs since 2010. Just 581 centres were left by March 2023. These youth clubs must be reopened. The Tories also slashed youth mental health services to almost nothing. They must be rebuilt across the country. And by building and purchasing more social housing, we can give children a secure start in life.

Disability benefits, and food banks

Hundreds – “probably thousands” – of disabled people have died avoidable deaths because of failures of the disability benefits system, according to an investigation by the Disability News Service. I am committed to tackling hardship and will help work to ensure our social security system protects people from needing a food bank to survive – with an end to punitive PIP, and Universal Credit requirements. Our social security system should prevent people from needing to use a food bank when times get tough. Instead, it is imposing harsh conditions, and food banks are being stretched to breaking point due to unprecedented levels of need.

Arts and culture

These are the proposals that came out of our people’s assembly on culture held on 22 June in Hove. This is our Arts & Culture draft policy; it is more than that, it is a vision of different kind of society focussed on flourishing instead of economic growth

ARTS

• Fund holiday activities for all children – youth sailing trusts, theatre, music – 3 weeks each summer. 
• Support community theatre groups.
• Create community spaces in all neighbourhoods as spaces for non-commercial, grassroots culture.
• Reduce working week to 4 days so people have time and energy to engage in culture
• Universal basic income to replace many means-tested benefits – much cheaper to administer and far less demeaning
• Create funded arts apprentices for low income young people
• Treat the arts as an essential part of British economy and national life
• Make high arts and culture accessible through compulsory affordable ticketing for all events, eg ballet, opera, theatre.

EDUCATION

• Include music as part of compulsory school curriculum. Fund music, art and drama in school timetable, not as extracurriculars. Ensure working class students have access to high quality arts and creative subjects in schools.
• Make creative GCSEs compulsory as well as STEM. Arts and sciences to have parity in education
• Decolonise the curriculum and education system. Teach the British Empire and colonialism objectively and critically.
• Teach politics from the age of 10 – understanding key political movements and history eg socialism, birth of democracy, feminism, gay rights, black power movements, anti-colonial movements, slavery.
• Teach critical thinking and philosophy to all students
• Libraries – offer free music lessons, drama, art.
• Arts – diversity within literature, arts and humanities, with teaching of global cultures.
• Stop measure based targets for success
• Adult education with everyone allowed to take one-year, and short term funded sabbaticals during working life.
• End academisation – bring schools back into local authority control
• Universities – abolish fees and restore direct funding of universities and education grants. Cap student rents. End private control of universities. 
• Ensure full access to education for people with special educational needs, neurodiversity, and disabilities
• Recognition of play as a necessary means for learning
• Match UK budget for the British Council and the Arts to the defence budget (2.5% of GDP)

Support Refugees & Asylum Seekers

The asylum and immigration system in the UK is systemically hostile and racist. If i become the MP for Portslade & Hove, I will challenge the politics of hate and fear that is being stoked in our country and as I believe ‘the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members’. We have a lot of work to do to change the current hostile narratives and culture that permeates our society.

If elected, I would work closely with UK refugee agencies to end the discriminatory culture vulnerable refugees and asylum people face. I support the work of refugee agencies such as Refugee Action, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and The Refugee Council ‘to give
refugees and people seeking asylum a fair hearing in the UK, no matter how they arrive, in keeping with commitments to international law’.

As such, I support the Refugee Council in its call for a fair and humane asylum system in the UK A Fair and Humane Asylum System – Refugee Council.

I say No Rwanda, no offshoring – the Rwanda plan won’t work – it is inflicting misery on refugees affected by it. 

Safe routes – the only way to save lives and stop Channel crossings is to offer safe routes for refugees to claim asylum in the UK. Safe passage worked for Ukrainians fleeing war – I  support offering safe routes to other refugees fleeing similar horrors from countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan and Eritrea.

Process the claims – not processing asylum claims resulted in a record backlog and saw the cost of asylum accommodation soar to £8 million per day. I  support investing in asylum decision-making, reduce accommodation costs and give refugees their lives back

Communities not camps and barges – refugees should be housed in communities, not camps and barges like the Bibby Stockholm. I  pledge to close down military camps and barges.

Right to work and move-on support, not homelessness – the ban on people seeking asylum being allowed to work has been counterproductive. The ban, coupled with a 28 day move-on / eviction period that is out of sync with the rights of every other citizen set out in the Homelessness Act, has led to a sharp rise in homelessness amongst people granted refugee status. I want the UK to offer support, not homelessness, to new refugees in the UK.

I support the idea to pilot refugee visas which people seeking asylum could apply for at embassies and other official sites around the world, to enable safe routes to the UK

We should make it easier for families separated by war and violence to reunite by expanding existing schemes, including by letting separated refugee children be joined by their closest family members.

We need to expand the UK’s resettlement schemes, establishing a target for those resettled under a single scheme and ensuring people are appropriately housed in the community with support to integrate. The UK should also flexibly respond to global emergencies and provide protection through emergency visa schemes and expanded family reunion routes.

We should collaborate with the French Government and other EU countries to make it safer for people to seek protection across the continent and to further crack down on people smugglers.