General Election: Independent candidate says he'll work "day and night" to make Bedford successful

Javed Tarek said: “I’ve been here most of my life, although I’ve served in the RAF travelling to various different locations, but Bedford has been my home from day one.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes, but changes on the negative side rather than positive side.

“Bedford doesn’t seem to be going forward, it seems to be going backward.

“I want to make a difference for the working class people of Bedford.”

Tarek said his experience of serving in the RAF for 35 years means he has the skills to be a “great MP”.

“The military teaches you loyalty, integrity, punctuality, and camaraderie,” he said.

“Those are all the skills that I think will help me to achieve my goals in a timely manner.

“I’m a great believer in putting hard work in to get the results and I will do my utmost best to put all the effort in to make Bedford a successful place,” he said.

Tarek pins the blame on Bedford’s problems on both the borough council and the Labour MP.

“Between them they could have done a hell of a lot more than what they’ve done so far,” he said. “They’re not passionate enough to go further.”

Tarek has eight campaign pledges, with one being (if elected) he will “spend half his parliamentary salary to help local services.”

“I will do this as a duty to serve,” he said.

“Over the course of my life I’ve heard lots of people say MPs take a big salary and they don’t actually deliver.

“I’m doing this for the passion, the money is not the driving factor for me

“I would need to deliver 100 per cent to bring about a better Bedford, that’s what’s driving me.

As an example of his actions to serve others, Tarek spoke of his time raising money and then spending five days helping victims of last year’s earthquake in Turkey.

“Me and my colleagues went to Turkey, at our own expense,”

“We went tent to tent, village to village and we distributed £135,000 directly to the affected people in Turkey. We distributed the aid from morning to evening to all these people.

“This shows the level of dedication I’m willing to put to people overseas.

“So imagine what I’m willing to do for the people of Bedford where I’ve been brought up.

“I will work day and night, if I have to, to bring about positive changes to Bedford. I want to produce the right goods, the quality goods, for the people of Bedford. I’ve come from a working class background, and I want to be there for the working class people of Bedford.

“I want to be there for everybody, but championing people that are hard working. I think they have been let down so far, it’s about time that somebody stood up and championed those all people,” he said.

The other candidates standing to be Bedford’s next MP are:

Prince Sadiq Chaudhury – Workers PartyPinder Chauhan – ConservativeBen Foley – GreenMatt Lansley – Reform UKHenry Vann – Lib DemMohammad Yasin – Labour

The election will be held on July 4.