Councillor Ed Mayne In Election Challenge Against Transport Secretary Chris Grayling

Isleworth's train driver is selected as Labour Party candidate for Epsom & Ewell

Labour Councillor Ed Mayne has been selected as the party's general election candidate for a seat in Epsom & Ewell, where the Conservative Party's Chris Grayling (Transport Secretary) has been MP since 2001 with a large majority.

It is the local councillor's first venture into national politics and he faces a huge challenge as Mr. Grayling won 58% share of the vote in the constituency in the 2015 election compared to Labour's 15%.

Cllr Mayne now represents Isleworth on Hounslow Council, said that as a train driver, he believed it was a good opportunity to challenge Mr. Grayling on his transport policies. Speaking exclusively to chiswickw4.com, Cllr Mayne said that he knew the area very well as he had previously worked as a train guard on the Epsom route and he was very aware of the frustration of local commuters.

His campaign would be highlighting transport issues, including the problem with Southern Rail, and the fact that local commuters were not able to use Oyster cards on the route, as had been previously promised.

Councillor Mayne is currently cabinet member with responsibility for Corporate Performance and Customer Care and represents Isleworth on Hounslow Council. Previous posts include Community Safety and Regulatory Services (Parking).

He described his first venture into national politics as an exciting and challenging opportunity.

The Epsom & Ewell constituency has traditionally been a strong Conservative seat. In 2015 Chris Grayling won 33,309 votes, or 58% of the overall vote. The then Labour Party candidate Sheila Carlson increased the party share of the vote by 3.5% to 8,866 or 15.5%.

Mr. Grayling is a high profile pro-Brexiteer and is a former Leader of the House of Commons -the Epsom & Ewell constituency largely voted Remain (52.2%) in the EU referendum.

May 4, 2017