Modern political careers are starting to resemble Monty Python’s Four Yorkshiremen sketch, in which characters compete to describe the most poverty-stricken childhood: ‘Cardboard box? You were lucky!’
The battle for London Mayor has a similar feel. On one side is the incumbent, Sadiq Khan, who hasn’t been shy about mentioning his father was an immigrant bus driver.
On the other, hoping to face him in the final contest, is Mozammel ‘Moz’ Hossain – dubbed ‘mystery Moz’ because of his sudden arrival on the political front line.
Mr Hossain, one of three candidates on the Tory shortlist, makes Mr Khan seem like the product of privilege.
Growing up in a family of ten in a mud-floored shack in Bangladesh, he didn’t own a pair of shoes until he was 16.
Mozammel ‘Moz’ Hossain – dubbed ‘mystery Moz’ because of his sudden arrival on the political front line – hopes to face Sadiq Khan in the final contest for London mayor next May
Moz Hossain’s backers hope the mayor’s unpopular extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez), combined with their man’s undoubted fluency and charisma, could produce a shock outcome at the election
Moz Hussain has pledged to scrap the Ulez expansion, which he says would damage public sector workers in particular – especially those who work unsociable hours
At 21, he moved to the UK to study law and is now the first Bangladesh-born criminal barrister to become a Queen’s or King’s Counsel.
‘Even the Martians know that Sadiq Khan’s father was a bus driver,’ he tells The Mail on Sunday. ‘But my dad didn’t even see a bus in our village.’
If Mr Hossain beats Dan Korski and Susan Hall to the Tory nomination when it is announced on July 19, he will go head-to-head with Mr Khan in next May’s election.
Mr Khan’s commanding poll lead encouraged Tory officials to look at candidates who were untypically Conservative.
Celebrities were one option – Judge Rinder was considered – but supporters of Mr Hossain argued he could prove effective as a new face, untainted by the Tories’ political troubles.
His bid was nearly derailed before it had begun when two of his campaign staff featured in a video leaked last week showing them breaching lockdown rules.
But Mr Hossain has decided to accept their apologies and move on: ‘Like everybody else I was very disappointed.
‘I suffered tragedy during Covid like other people. I’ve spoken to them and they are full of remorse. I like to give people second chances.’
Despite Mr Khan’s lead, Mr Hossain’s backers hope the mayor’s unpopular extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez), combined with their man’s undoubted fluency and charisma, could produce a shock outcome in May.
‘Sadiq Khan has never really had a proper challenger,’ Mr Hossain says. ‘You need somebody who can park a huge tank on his lawn.’
He believes his personal story will form a key part of that tank:
‘There is not a single attack line Sadiq Khan can use against me. I left my then home at 21: mud floor, tin roof and a sobbing mother – a mother who couldn’t write, a father who only went to primary school.’
He may be a political newcomer, but Mr Hossain’s main pledge is familiar – to make London’s streets safer.
Brandishing his KC status, he says: ‘One area where Sadiq Khan has failed indisputably is crime.
‘I have been a criminal barrister for 21 years – there is not a single aspect of the criminal justice system I don’t have the most intimate and expert knowledge of. That’s where I will tackle him.’
He also pledges an institutional overhaul of the scandal-hit Metropolitan Police, by setting up an independent anti-corruption body.
He says: ‘Sadiq Khan is the head of policing and crime, and under him the Met is in special measures.
‘Talk to anybody in London and they will tell you how unsafe people feel, whether rich or poor. People have lost faith in the Met.’
Drawing on his experience of some of the biggest criminal trials of the past two decades, he promises to take down the gangs responsible for so much violent crime.
‘Behind most of the crimes in London there are gangs,’ he says. ‘The Met knows who those gangs are.
‘I work on a lot of gang-related murders – in almost every case there’s been a fight, they do a drill video and sing about what they’re going to do. And after they have done it – murder – they sing about that as well. We have to dismantle them.’
Mr Hossain is robust about stop-and-search policing in the face of controversy about whether it has a racist impact: ‘Mothers who have lost children are asking why the police didn’t stop the perpetrators when they were carrying a knife.
‘Angry mothers whose son has killed somebody, and who will not see him for the next 20 years, ask why the police haven’t stopped him when he was carrying a machete. There is no alternative.
‘We must stop being politically correct about this. We must increase intelligence-based stop and search. That’s the only way to stop violent crimes.’
Mr Hossain’s answer to the cost-of-living crisis is to increase housing stock to help young buyers – such as by building on Transport for London land – and to scrap the Ulez expansion, which he says would damage public sector workers in particular: ‘Imagine you’re a nurse working at Orpington hospital and you finish your shift at three in the morning.
‘You would be lucky to have one night bus an hour. How on earth are you going to go home, unless you’re driving your car?’
But why should the Tories choose Mr Hossain to take on Mr Khan?
‘A traditional Conservative is not going to cut the mustard,’ he says. ‘It has to be somebody unusual.’
