Labour’s Joan Ryan confirms re-election bid for London’s Turkish-speaking marginal seat, but no word on yet from Conservative Nick de Bois
The key marginal seat affecting Turkish, Kurdish and Turkish Cypriot people is likely to be Enfield North, a vast constituency extending from the leafy farmlands and golf courses of Chase in the west to urbanised Ponders End and Turkey Street in the east.
Just 1086 votes separated Labour and the Conservatives here in the 2015 general election, with both parties holding the seat in recent years.
The current MP is Labour’s Joan Ryan, who regained the seat in 2015 after previously holding it between 1997 and 2010.
Her time in office was interrupted by the Conservative Nick de Bois, her rival in every election since 2001, who spent five years as MP between 2010 and 2015.
His 2015 defeat to Ms Ryan came despite Enfield North being twice visited by then-leader David Cameron during the election campaign.
Joan Ryan, who led a Westminster Hall debate in parliament on freedom of expression in Turkey last month, is well-known in the Turkish-speaking communities. She told Haber newspaper this week that she will be standing for re-election on 8 June.
Nick de Bois would not confirm if there would be a fifth contest between the two, although under emergency Conservative party rules published on the Guido Fawkes website candidates who stood “in key target seats in 2015” can apply to be fast-tracked to stand again in the same seat.