“ENOUGH is enough” for Independent general election candidate Tim Lord, who’s stepped up to challenge the Conservatives’ 16-year dominance of the Cities of London & Westminster in the wake of Brexit – something he sees as a “symptom of the failure in our politics” and a “worrying direction” the country is heading in.
Troubled by the hasty triggering of Article 50, the specialist lawyer in negotiations wants to press pause on talks with Brussels and be a “local voice” to hold politicians accountable for a successful divorce case.
Tim told City Matters: “There needs to be time for conversation, this country is a large economy in Europe.
“We’ve had 40 years of social, political and economic integration and we’ve jumped on this bandwagon of Article 50 which attempts to undo this in two years.
“As a lawyer it’s completely impractical to expect this to happen. We’re in a weak negotiating position already, Theresa May has blamed the EU already; it’s not smart.”
And Tim says he’s not alone in his views. The 25-year Soho local has discovered another three political outsiders standing as Independents with the same Brexit woes, namely Chris Coghlan for Battersea, Balham & Wandsworth, James Torrance for Kensington & Chelsea, and James Clarke for Bermondsey & Old Southwark.
Such is their appreciation for the others’ cause they have begun to dub themselves the “Fab Four.”
For Tim his Independent stance gives him the voice to speak up on behalf of constituents, and avoids the predicament of toeing a party line while the City comes to terms with the plethora of issues thrown up by Brexit.
Tim said: “The loss of jobs in the City is happening now, and the 20,000 EU nationals are being affected now. They can’t really plan because they don’t know if they’re going to be here in two years.”
In a bid to backtrack on Article 50 and stop the country looking “ridiculous”, Tim wants to push politicians to draw up a credible position of what a post-Brexit UK, in terms of the economy, welfare, health and education, will look like before trusting them to negotiate with Europe.
“All they want to do is move power from Europe to Westminster, not to the UK parliament but to a small part of the Tory Party, and they have said nothing about what they want to do with that power. Until they say what they want this power for, why would you give it to them?”
The Linklaters-trained solicitor, who grew up on a Lancashire sheep farm, is also out to defend his adopted home of Soho after it was hit by rising business rates.
Tim said: “One of the reasons I think Soho is lovely is partly because of all the independent retail shops; that’s across specialist food retailers, suit makers, the vinyl record shops – they are being really badly impacted by the rates increase.
“If we lose those shops, the thing that is really good about Soho, the reason people come here will be lost – we need to look at that big time.”
