A Tory barrister who is battling to become the party’s London mayoral candidate broke down in tears as he told how he had been inspired by his mother’s death to run for City Hall.
Moz Hossain KC sobbed on camera as he told the Evening Standard how his mother, who was married at the age of 11, and father “worked day and night” to feed and educate their eight children.
Asked when he decided to try to become mayor, he said: “It was after my mother died in May 2021 – around October, November.
“My mother was my biggest pocket of love. My life changed forever after she died. Her whole life has been about sacrificing for others. She gave us everything she had.
“She worked 18 hours a day, never slept properly, and often, after feeding eight children and a husband, there would be nothing left – just rice.
“I wanted to change life on a grand scale, and I can do that as the mayor of London because people are suffering. I’m not a politician but I know I can do this.
“It is one life we have and I want to be able to say: ‘I have tried.’ I want her to be proud. She never knew what a KC was but I think she would have understood that her son was doing something good.”
Mr Hossain is competing against Susan Hall and Dan Korski for the right to stand against Sadiq Khan next May. The victorious Tory mayoral candidate is due to be announced on July 19.
Mr Hossain, who lives in Mile End, grew up in a village in Bangladesh in a “wooden house with a mud floor and tin roof”, a “magical place” where he would bathe in a pond surrounded by papaya trees and pineapple bushes.
He came to the UK in 1995, aged 21, to study law at Liverpool university, funded by his elder brothers.
“My third brother was a doctor – a consultant in the NHS,” he said. “When he becomes a junior doctor – I’m the youngest of eight – he brings me over here. That’s the way my parents did it – the family looking after each other.”
He moved to London in 1999. He recalled having to travel each year to Lunar House in Croydon to renew his visa.
“My visa expired as a trainee barrister and the only way I could stay in the country was if I won a pupillage [at a barrister’s chambers]. I think I was the only foreign student who got a pupillage that year.”
He became a British citizen in 2009. “It was one of my proudest moments,” he said. “I became a British citizen and I had to go and take the oath. I was the first person in the whole room to finish [the citizenship test]. It was great fun.”
Asked if a boy from Bangladesh could follow his footsteps under the UK’s current immigration rules, he said: “Yes, I think they could. If you want to come here legally I think we still have a very welcoming system.”
If elected, he would “cut the head off” gangs to tackle knife crime and phone robberies. He told the Standard he would establish a “Targeted Termination Team” within the Met with the sole purpose of hunting and arresting gang leaders.
The mayor also holds the job of police and crime commissioner for London. “I will make sure the [Met] commissioner follows my guidance,” Mr Hossain vowed, “My orders come from Londoners. No ifs, no buts.”
He hopes to use his forensic legal skills to cross-examine the mayor’s policies. “I think I’m the candidate that Sadiq Khan worries about before he goes to sleep,” he said.
He has vowed to turn off the Ulez extension cameras “on day one” of taking office.
He revealed he cannot drive a car. “I have never learned how to drive,” he said. “I have learned how to ride a bike – five years ago – and I love it.”
He is a fan of theatre and recalled going to the National Theatre as a student, on £5 tickets, to see plays such as Uncle Vanya.
At the first Tory mayoral hustings last week, he vowed to freeze the mayor’s share of council tax - though without explaining how he would fund the pledge.
Big pledge from @MozForMayor: vows to freeze [mayor's share of] council tax
— Ross Lydall (@RossLydall) June 16, 2023
But his campaign has been hit by controversy – it is being run by people caught in the Partygate scandal, including Ben Mallet and “dancing woman” Malin Bogue.
Meanwhile, Mr Khan has emerged as the most popular of London’s three mayors since the establishment of the Greater London Authority in 2000.
A poll by Redfield & Wilton and the OnLondon website asked 1,100 respondents if he had been a good or bad mayor: 51 per cent said good and 23 per cent bad. This compared with 43 per cent “good” for Boris Johnson and 41 per cent “good” for Ken Livingstone.
Asked who had been the best mayor since the role was created in 2000, 29 per cent said Mr Khan, 28 per cent said Mr Johnson and 24 per cent said Mr Livingstone.
