This is an interview with Glyn Robbins, chair of Tower Hamlets Respect and reserve cat sitter. It will be in the next issue of Socialist Resistance.

How many candidates is Respect standing in Tower Hamlets?

Fifty-one. We’re standing a candidate in every seat in every ward.

What are the backgrounds of the candidates?

They’re very mixed. They cover the range of Respect as an organisation nationally. We’ve got socialists and trade unionists to people who don’t have an historical involvement in socialist or working class politics but have been radicalised through the war. We’ve got a large number of people who are under thirty and a significant proportion of them are young Bengali women and that’s something we’re proud of.

What have been the key issues during the campaign?

We have made housing the number one issue. New Labour and the Liberals have nothing to say about it other than privatisation and building housing in the area that people can’t afford. Crossrail is not the big issue we thought it was going to be. The council and the government seem to be doing a U-turn due to pressure from Respect and that’s encouraging. Of course the war is still there. We can’t control military policy from the town hall but people recognise that we’re the party that campaigned against the war and will continue to do that.

How many candidates do you think will get elected?

We’re playing to win but we have to be realistic about the position of Respect historically. If we get anything above half a dozen or into double figures it will be a remarkable achievement and anything beyond that is into the realms of historic I’d say. It’s difficult to put a number to it but I’d be disappointed if we don’t win a significant number of seats.