Julie Dockerill ‘I saw fistfights among councillors. Democracy definitely wasn’t working’

Age: 32 Seat: Hornchurch and Upminster Tory majority: 13,074 Replacing: Dame Angela Watkinson The “gutter politics” of Tower Hamlets, the east London borough, inspired Julia Dockerill to get involved in elected politics.

The Cambridge University graduate – the only person from her state school year to make Oxbridge – had moved to the area but was shocked by the state of local democracy.

“I had just got my first flat and went along to the town hall meeting out of interest,” she recalls. “There was a physical fight that broke out between Tower Hamlets councillors. Death threats were issued.

“I was so horrified by what I saw that I quietly challenged myself to stand as a local councillor. Democracy definitely wasn’t working as it should.”

Those fears proved grounded when Lutfur Rahman, the former Tower Hamlets mayor, was found guilty of electoral fraud in 2015.

An interest in politics had seen Ms Dockerill study social and political science before becoming a researcher for the Tory MP Mark Field.

The pair co-wrote two books on the financial crash while she is currently writing a third on how London has changed in the Noughties.

Ms Dockerill voted for Brexit while her old boss, then the Tory vicechairman, went for Remain. “I don’t believe the organisation is flexible and nimble enough to deal with some of the big challenges coming its way,” she says of the EU.

Helping unite the country after the referendum will be among her ambitions if she wins the seat.