Florence Eshalomi: 24 HOURS TO ELECTION
“On two separate occasions I have been confused for another Black female MP. This has happened to my black female colleagues. The frequency is worrying and lends itself to the lazy racist view that all Black people look the same.”
Florence Eshalomi wrote these words to her constituents this week (June 5 2020). She’s one of six black women elected to parliament in 2019. In total there are 12 black female MPs. She’s been receiving hundreds of emails - 2 to 3 a minute - an outpouring of solidarity and rage following the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota, the Belly Mujinga case and the PHE report which showed the disproportionate effects of Covid-19 on BAME people.
On December 12th last year, I had the privilege of documenting Florence’s final 24 hours before she became MP for Vauxhall with a large majority. Despite being a Labour safe seat, it was a rare good news moment in an otherwise bruising night for the party.
This is the story of her campaign’s final 24 hours leading up to the result.
Getting elected is no small feat. Amongst many other things, it requires hours of canvassing - getting your message across to voters, understanding the issues they care about, building trust so they know you will do all you can to represent them tirelessly in Parliament – that you will make their voices heard.
This photo essay gives a sense of just how hard Florence worked on that final day. She knocked, knocked and knocked again on doors across the borough. She travelled to nearby Labour seats that weren’t the sure-bet hers was to give potential MPs her support. And throughout the rain poured and poured and poured some more.
Florence then got up in the middle of the night (if she managed to sleep at all), got dressed up and networked - talking to local media and supporters as she waited anxiously for the result. When she was announced victorious, despite little to no sleep, she delivered a stirring speech laying out her plans for Lambeth and for the Labour party.
Throughout, Florence remained enthusiastic, unflinchingly positive and happy to discuss anything her potential voters had to throw at her.
Now she’s been in the seat a while she’s since told me that an early night home is 10pm so she often misses her young children’s bedtime - on the night of the election she did it over facetime making sure they didn’t miss out on this hugely important moment for the whole family.
Only time will tell of those dreams come true.
We can all hope that like her we continue to listen to the experiences and concerns of our diverse communities and start to consider how best to address some of the long-standing injustices they face.
