Voters in Bradford West: Imad Ahmed here. I’ve been talking with you at your doors, and responding to your emails which have been coming in thick and fast. This is for those of you too shy to reach me at imaduddin [at] gmail [dot] com.

First of all, I’m proud to run with the Lib Dems. We’re humane, green, and sensible. We’ve got a credibly costed manifesto that’s been endorsed by The Guardian. It’s clear that we’ll rebuild our health and education systems and deliver on affordable housing within planetary boundaries by taxing the wealthy, banks and frequent flyers. See below for details.

The Lib Dems have stood for morality and against the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Since 2017, Lib Dem MPs have voted for the immediate recognition of Palestine. In 2021, the Liberal Democrat party membership called for the immediate cessation of trade with illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories. In November 20223 and since, all of our MPs voted for a ceasefire, have given full support to the ICC rulings, called to stop arm exports to Israel, called for a two-state solution with recognition of Palestine by its pre-1967 borders, called for sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers for pushing more settlements, called for the immediate release of political prisoners and hostages and called for the immediate reinstatement of funding of UNRWA.

Health: We’ll push the next Labour government to deliver 8,000 more GPs so that anyone can be see, end ‘dental deserts’, and boost cancer survival rates by guaranteeing all patients are treated within two months from urgent referral (and other interventions mentioned in our manifesto).

Affordable housing and cost of living: We’ll push for 380,000 new homes a year, including 150,000 social homes, through garden cities and community-led development of cities and towns. We’ll push to scrap the Vagrancy Act and look to end rough sleeping within the next Parliament.

We’ll push for free insulation and heat pumps for low-income households and require all new buildings to be built to a zero-carbon standard. We’ll reintroduce requirements for landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties to EPC by 2028.

We’ll also look to abolish residential leaseholds and cap ground rents so that everyone has control over their property.

Education and young people: We’ll look to close the attainment gap by giving disadvantaged children extra free care, tripling the Pupil Premium, extending free school meals to all children in poverty, and appointing a Cabinet Minister for Children and Young People. We’ll push to remove the two-child limit and the benefit cap. We’ll push for a mental health professional at every school. We’ll push to reinstate maintenance grants for disadvantaged university students.

Just transition from oil and gas: We’ll push to reskill people working in the O&G sector as we remove the Tories’ restrictions on new solar and wind power, maintain bans on fracking and new coal mines, and invest in energy storage as we push for a greener electricity grid.

Wildlife, sewage, animal welfare: We’ll end the sewage scandal by transforming water companies into public benefit companies, banning bonuses for water bosses until discharges and leaks end and enforcing tougher regulation.

We’ll set meaningful and binding targets to stop the decline of our natural environment and ‘double nature’ by 2050: doubling the size of the Protected Area Network. We’ll push for 60 million trees to be planted a year, and push to pass a Clean Air Act based on WHO guidelines, enforced by a new Air Quality Agency. We’ll aim to eliminate single-use plastics by replacing them with alternatives and introducing the successful Scottish deposit return scheme for bottles and containers.

We’ll push to support sustainable, nature-friendly, humane and profitable farming. We’ll push for ‘public money for public goods’ to farmers who opt into nature recovery. We’ll ensure farmers receive advise on how to reduce pollution of waterways and reward them for reducing the use of harmful fertilisers and pesticides. We’ll push to fund research into new and emerging technologies that promote sustainability.

We’ll push for a new Animal Welfare Bill that covers all sentient animals. We’ll push to ban caged hen and prevent unnecessarily painful practices in farming. We’ll at least match the EU’s stricter rules on preventative use of antibiotics. We’ll look to develop evidence-based ways of controlling bovine TB so we’re not unnecessarily culling badgers.

Care and disability: We’ll push the next government to make it easier for disabled people to access public life, including the world of work, by improving accessibility at train stations through the Access for All programme; tackling the disability employment gap by implementing a targeted strategy to support disabled people into work, with specialist disability employment support; raising employers’ awareness of the Access to Work scheme and simplifying and speeding up the application process. 

With respect to carers, we’ll push for free personal care so that provision is based on need, not ability to pay; and push to introduce a higher Carer’s Minimum Wage.  

Pensions: We’ll support pensioners by protecting the triple lock so that pensions always rise in line with inflation, wages or 2.5% – whichever is highest. We’ll push to ensure that women born in the 1950s are finally treated fairly and properly compensated.

Immigration and asylum: Britain has a proud history of welcoming newcomers, and they’ve added immense value to Britain, as I’ve argued in this piece for GQ. But our immigration system has been broken by the Tories. We’ll end their Hostile Environment. We’ll scrap the Conservatives’ Illegal Migration Act and their Rwanda scheme, uphold the Refugee Convention, and provide safe and legal routes to sanctuary for refugees, helping to prevent dangerous Channel crossings. We’ll lift the ban on asylum seekers working if they have been waiting for a decision for more than three months. We’ll work closely with Europol and the French authorities to stop the smuggling and trafficking gangs behind dangerous Channel crossings.

We’ll replace the Tories’ arbitrary salary threshold with a more flexible merit-based system for work visas, with the relevant department working with employers in each sector to address specific needs as part of a long-term workforce strategy. We’ll reverse the Tories’ ban on care workers bringing partners and children. We’ll protect the rights of EU citizens and their families in the UK by automatically granting full Settled Status to all those with Pre-Settled Status and providing them physical proof of their right to stay. We’ll ensure victims of the Windrush scandal get the compensation they are entitled to.

As I already started with Ed Davey, I’ll continue to work to repeal the revocation of citizenship laws.

Rights: We’ll scrap the Tories’ draconian anti-protest laws.

International development, supporting climate resilience abroad and debt forgiveness: We are commited to restoring international development to 0.7% of national income. If elected, I’ll work to ensure that the government’s international development agenda prioritises global access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, food security, and supports initiatives to alleviate low-income country governments’ debt crises that have been precipitated by COVID19 and the invasion of the Ukraine. 

I’ve dedicated my entire career to tackling global poverty and injustice. Professionally, I’m an international development professional, specialised in climate adaptation, climate finance access and climate diplomacy. I’ve published a book on building climate resilience to Zambia’s energy crises. One of the committees I volunteer on is the Liberal International Climate Justice Committee, where I drafted policy for our federation of liberal parties across 120 countries on recognising climate displacement.

I’ve written about water management in Pakistan (in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn), in Jordan to inform European policy making through the European Liberal Forum, about possible new tech for sourcing water from the atmosphere in the Financial Times, and on Zambia, for which I’ve published peer-reviewed journal articles and a book. I’ve also published peer-reviewed journal articles about access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene in post-earthquake-struck Indonesian schools.

Last summer, I supported the Kenyan presidency in prioritising fiscal concerns of climate vulnerable low-income countries for Africa’s first climate summit, and then helped the presidency feed this agenda into the UAE Leaders’ Declaration on a Global Climate Finance Framework.  

You’ll see that I haven’t made ‘climate’ its own issue because it cuts across several sectors.

Me: I serve several climate vulnerable governments in Africa by providing strategy, policy and deal execution support. Previously, over four years in Rwanda, I helped increase clean water supply, speed-up distribution to rural health clinics, and triple Rwanda’s electricity supply. I also contributed to laws that increase transparency, consistency and ensure value-for-money around procurement.

I became an activist as a Berkeley student in 2002. Across four continents, and have campaigned

• against wars and military occupation, including the Iraq war, crowd-sourcing a direct apology by Pakistani citizens to Bangladeshis, campaigning against India’s military occupation of Kashmir, as well as campaigning most recently for a ceasefire as an Executive Member of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine,
• for civil liberties in the USA and UK,
• for women’s rights in Pakistan,
• for recognising climate displacement,
• for better water resource management in Jordan and Pakistan,
• for a climate resilient system in Zambia (on which I published a book),
• for local financing for infrastructure projects in Rwanda, and
• for the EU.

I’m married, a dad to a mischievous toddler, I love family nature walks, reading and am learning the piano. Last year, I helped secure 12 new trees on my street with my neighbours, the council and a charity, and activated my Neighbourhood Watch. I have three economics and finance degrees: two from both coasts of America, with an exchange in Paris, and the PhD from London.