Labour candidate for Edmonton visits major employer in constituency
Kate Osamor, the Labour candidate for Edmonton, continued her general election campaign this week with a visit to Holland Bazaar, a wholesale store that employs local workers.
Ms Osamor, who first became MP for the area in 2015 and is seeking re-election, was taken on a tour of the facility by owner Ali Matur and Mert Uçar, the managing director.
She was told by Mr Matur how the Holland Bazaar had become one of the largest wholesalers in the UK with a wide selection of products on sale.
The firm’s success, he said, was partly in the decision to switch to an open-all-hours operating model: the cash-and-carry business is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All manner of fruit and vegetables can be found here, as well as staples liked canned and bottled drinks, milk and even charcoal.
It meant Holland Bazaar was now able to open a second branch in Croydon, Mr Matur added.
Mr Matur said he was pleased to form dialogue with the local MP and said his entire workforce lived in the local area, meaning they would have been Ms Osamor’s constituents during the last parliament.
Always open for dialogue
In a conversation with the Holland Bazaar directors attended by Haber’s editorial team, Ms Osamor – who was joined by Edmonton Green councillor Andrew Stafford – said she was pleased to visit a prominent local business.
Housing and unemployment were the principal issues facing the constituency, she said, adding that Labour’s recently-published election manifesto had been a source of hope for millions of people.
Pledges like abolishing university tuition fees, funds for housing construction projects and increased spending for the NHS had all been welcomed by the public.
Ms Osamor said that she had been widely backing by Turkish and Kurdish-speaking people when she first became an MP in 2015 and that she had worked to repay that support by concentrating on their needs.
But she added that she was the representative for all of Edmonton’s communities and not any single group, and that she was always happy for dialogue with any section of society – even if they oppose her and her views.