Womenwithcityhallintheirsights

Siobhan Benita is Independent candidate Jenny Jones, member of London Assembly, is Green nominee

IN A campaign dominated by two candidates so well-known that they are immediately recognisable by their first names alone, it is a new face in London politics which appears to have caught attention.

Independent candidate Siobhan Benita has walked away from a 15-year career as a senior civil servant to take on Boris and Ken and run to be Mayor of London.

She has the backing of former cabinet secretary Lord O’donnell, who acts as a mentor and, says the mother-of-two, “brings a new dimension” to the mayoral race. Celebrity backers, including

Peter Jones, are promoting her candidacy.

Ms Benita is supported by Jewish activists working to help her collect the 330 signatures (10 from each London borough) needed to stand.

She said: “The way London took in my mum [as a young girl from India in 1959] is a story that’s replicated across London. It’s a very tolerant city and we should make more of that. It’s about time we reminded ourselves.

“I think people are realising there’s quite a lot of substance to what I’m saying in terms of how the machinery of government works and how you get things done. I think that sets me apart.

“The mayor should be a positive role model for all Londoners and be more inclusive than the current and past mayor.”

Ms Benita “has a problem” with Mr Johnson and his predecessor, and feels voters are tired of the pair offending different sections of the electorate. She added: “People have never been so disengaged from party politics. The role of mayor was never set up to be held by party politicians. It was supposed to encourage people to vote for a leader for London.”

If elected, Ms Benita plans to increase co-operation between minority communities and help them build networks across London, a plan she hopes Jewish communities will support.

THE GREEN Party can be “good for the Jewish community”, according to the party’s London mayoral election candidate.

Jenny Jones said she believed the party’s policies were “balanced” on Israel, but defended the Greens’ denunciation of the Jewish National Fund as “racist”.

Ms Jones spent time in Israel in the 1990s while studying archaeology as a mature student, and said the experience had helped her understand the challenges Israel faces.

As the Jewish community becomes increasingly aware of green issues – the Jewish Social Action Forum’s Year of the Bicycle initiative is a leading example – Ms Jones admitted her connection to Anglo-jews had been “zero”. She is yet to visit any Jewish organisations during her campaign, despite the fact that half her core election team is Jewish. She hoped to arrange a synagogue visit in the coming weeks.

What may put off Jewish voters, however, is the Green line on Israel and the Palestinians. Caroline Lucas, the party’s leader and only MP, has regularly campaigned for the Palestinian cause and last summer joined activists on a “Free Gaza flotilla” that sailed past Parliament on the Thames.

Delegates at last month’s England and Wales Green Party spring conference called for the JNF to be stripped of its charity status and denounced the organisation – which has planted thousands of trees across Israel, turning the desert green – as “racist”.

Although she did not vote on the motion at the conference, Ms Jones backs the policy: “I think the JNF saying our vote was an ‘attack on Israel’ is absolute rubbish. That’s not true at all. It’s an attack on an organisation that’s being racist. Why is that an attack on Israel?

“If you’re only allowing one people into an area, that’s racist… Look, this is not something I’ve gone into in a lot of depth.

“I think the JNF guy here [Samuel Hayek] says it’s an attack on Israel and its people.that’s rubbish and as far as I understand that was not the intention of the motion.”

She added: “It’s not that I’m not supportive of Israel. I’ve visited, I’ve worked there, I understand the pressure on Israelis, it’s phenomenal. Nobody who has been there could avoid understanding the pressure of having Arab countries all around and being such a small country. But at the same time you can’t allow this aggression between two peoples to carry on.”

Ms Jones’ campaign mainly concentrates — understandably — on issues central to the majority of Londoners: transport, safer streets, social equality.

She is concerned that the personality clashes of the leading candidates — mayor Boris Johnson and his main challenger, Ken Livingstone — are detracting from serious debates on policies.