Alison Stoecker with MP Jeremy Corbyn

A “COMPLETELY” independent candidate has said political parties encourage “gang mentality” as she vowed to “truly represent the needs” of the community.

Alison Stoecker, who is running in Hillrise, has chosen to go it alone, without the support of a larger party structure. She had considered running under the Islington Community Independents banner, but decided against this also. She said she believed in “unions” rather than party political allegiances, and claimed this freedom would mean she could always cater to the needs of her neighbours.

Ms Stoecker told the Tribune: “It gets to the point where the drive is the party winning and to accumulate power, and people get into power and then the same things happen. When they’re not in power they say ‘we’ll do this, we’ll do that’, and then the objective becomes maintaining power, by whatever means necessary sometimes.”

She added: “With people like me, because we haven’t got our hands tied, we can be transparent, we can be kind – our leadership is about people. I’m not beholden to top-down politics, I’m beholden to the electorate that elected me. If I’m not speaking loud enough or shouting loud enough then they’re going to come and find me, which they should do.”

But the Hillrise candidate said she is “not delusional” about where the blockages might come in, as sitting in the Town Hall as an independent means you are often shut out from decision-making at the top.

Ms Stoecker said her aim would be to get voters more engaged by showing that she listened to them. “The amount of doors I’ve knocked of people that say they won’t vote, don’t vote, have never voter before, are fed up, that I could go back to if elected and say come on let’s get some engagement here, tell me what’s going on,” she added.

Ms Stoecker, whose daughter Tabby won an Olympic gold medal in the skeleton earlier this year, said affordability was the prime issue.

“I’ve got an Olympic star champion that still lives hand-to-mouth,” she said. “You would have thought ‘oh brilliant’ all that hard work you’ve done for the country. We need to make a bigger table and get people round it. I’ve got an older daughter who can’t afford to live nearby and you lose that support network.

“We need to come together and use our collective voice to really push back, and come up with usable ideas. People who have been living on estates for 50 years, they know what’s good and what’s not good. We need to bring back community.”