Rosena Allin-Khan selected to stand for Labour in House of Commons seat vacated last week by London’s new mayor, Sadiq Khan

A junior accident and emergency doctor who provided cover during the recent NHS strikes against Jeremy Hunt’s new contracts has been chosen as Labour’s candidate for Tooting, the House of Commons seat vacated last week by the new London mayor, Sadiq Khan.

Harm patients? Junior doctors are striking to protect them | Stephen Fabes Read more

Rosena Allin-Khan, who is also deputy leader of Wandsworth council’s Labour group, has said she wants to make the byelection “a referendum on this Tory government’s failures – especially the NHS”.

The mother-of-two is a junior doctor, although as an A&E specialist she worked to provide cover through the January strikes against the government’s reorganisation of the health service. It is not clear whether she joined the all-out strikes last month.

Allin-Khan was chosen on Saturday at a meeting of the Tooting constituency party, following interviews with Labour’s national executive council on Wednesday.

Rosena Allin-Khan (@DrRosena) From the doorstep in the morning to the Tooting NHS front line on the Sunday late shift! Amazing team #Tooting pic.twitter.com/QdJndbRtYM

Commenting on her selection, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said: “Labour has selected a great candidate to fight the Tooting byelection. Rosena Allin-Khan is a local doctor who is committed to defending local NHS services.”

In her campaign literature, she makes much of her mixed Polish and Pakistani heritage and her working class roots.

In a leaflet, she says: “Coming from a working class, mixed Polish-Pakistani background, I am a product of all that Tooting stands for – tolerance, diversity and hard work. I went to Trinity St Mary School and my mum had to hold down three jobs to make ends meet – to support me and my younger brother.

“Thanks to my mother’s hard work and changes implemented by a Labour government, I was able to go to a good school and then go on to study medicine at university. I’ve now chosen to raise my own young family here in Tooting while working as an emergency doctor at St George’s A&E department.”

Allin-Khan has said she is well placed to tackle the government over its NHS policies, which have proved unpopular and led to one of the most significant – and well supported – series of walkouts since the miners’ strike in the 1980s.

Rosena Allin-Khan (@DrRosena) Supporting all junior doctors! We will not risk lives! The new contract is not safe for patients. @WandswrthLabour pic.twitter.com/pR66lB42la

“As a doctor I’ve seen firsthand the effects that this government is having on our NHS,” her campaign leaflet says. “It’s been incredibly inspiring to have the support of so many Labour party members as we’ve stood on the picket line.

“My frontline experience allows me to show how Jeremy Hunt’s attacks on junior doctors will impact the service we are able to give. I will hold him to account, ensuring our action is amplified in parliament.”

The Tory candidate for the 16 June byelection is Dan Watkins, who lost to Khan in 2015 by just 2,842 votes, despite local activists delivering 3m pieces of literature and claiming that about 80% of their pledges turned out.

In a blog on the Conservative Home website, Matthew Maxwell Scott, former chair of Tooting Conservatives, said gentrification in the area could improve his party’s chances, but sounded a pessimistic note.

“As a whole, it is different but not completely transformed from the mid-1980s,” he wrote. “Equally, the changes in the more Labour-inclined parts of the constituency around Tooting Broadway are often cosmetic. Vastly improved pubs and surprisingly posh chicken shops reflect changing tastes and higher disposable incomes, not a political metamorphosis.”

Corbyn met Allin-Khan in Tooting following her victory where the two shared a conversation about football. The Arsenal-supporting Labour leader was disappointed to hear the newly selected candidate is a Liverpool supporter.

Allin-Khan said she was very excited to challenge for the seat and praised the work carried out by her predecessor. “Sadiq Khan has left a fantastic legacy with his tireless work in he community in the last 11 years and I look forward to building upon all that he’s done for community cohesion and all that he’s done locally,” she said.

“I have a great track record in the area of campaigning tirelessly.”