Birmingham City Council election candidate in Ward End, Harris Khaliq, is a positive ball of energy, barely able to contain his enthusiasm and desire to show off the neighbourhood he wants to represent.
"One resident called me the Mamdani of Ward End. I like that," says a buoyant Khaliq, referring to the groundbreaking Mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani.
Recent polls make Khaliq, an Independent, the most likely candidate to oust Labour from a seat the party has comfortably held through two election cycles.
Labour's candidate this time, Mohammed Aikhlaq, a veteran councillor who last represented the area in 2022, hopes he can get voters to back his personal record and his party's achievements in power in sufficient numbers to keep rivals out.
The Greens, Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, Reform and Workers Party all hope anti-Labour voters might turn to them instead.
Khaliq grins at the idea that it's all to play for though. "I'm going to win. And this is just the start."
He oozes confidence as we chat in a cafe off Washwood Heath Road, just round the corner from the house he was born and raised in and still calls home. Over the course of the next hour he shares a compelling life story, one rooted in the streets around us, that he hopes will attract voters.
Khaliq, a father of three, whizzes in and out of local businesses, knocks doors and presses leaflets into the hands of passing shoppers. He makes a case that appears to be resonating.
He repeats claims heard elsewhere in this election that Labour in Birmingham has for years been relying on 'village politics' imported from distant homelands to corner the 'Muslim vote' in Muslim majority communities, through so-called biraderi, or clan, bloc votes.
"The bar was so low - the councillor would get the backing of one or two influential elders, and sign passport or identity cards or do some other simple act, and that was enough to earn votes. I want our communities to stop blindly voting for a badge, whatever it is, and am finding people are receptive to that. They are saying on the doorstep they are not participating in that any more, they want a councillor who is for the community as a whole."
While standing under an Independent label, he has eschewed direct links with Independent Candidate Alliance leaders Shakeel Afsar and Akhmed Yakoob, who have attracted controversy in the city. He is endorsed by Your Party and describes his politics as 'progressive' and inspired by Labour outcast Jeremy Corbyn.
"What's disappointing is that we're here on the brink of changing politics across the city, of moving away from the mainstream parties that have let the city down, yet the quality of candidates out there are not necessarily all we need to save our city," he said. "Voters need to really think about who's equipped to run this massive council."
Aged 34, Khaliq says he's rooted 'body, heart and soul' in Ward End, a community that is the fourth most deprived in the city, with very high rates of youth unemployment, shocking child poverty and a dearth of opportunities.
A massive multi-billion pound plan to regenerate all of East Birmingham is on the table, with Ward End at its heart. Investment and growth are promised to lift up the community, with the Labour mayor Richard Parker and local MP Liam Byrne making the case that only then can deliver a bright future.
But Khaliq says whole generations have been let down while waiting for this 'grand fix' - including his own. He describes a childhood that was happy but rooted in inequality. He says. "Over the last three decades, I've seen so much neglect, and so many politicians promising the earth and delivering nothing, taking this community for granted and taking it for a ride."
As a boy he was inquisitive, curious and 'hard for teachers to control'. As a teenager he was sent to an alternative education setting at The Base in Ward End Park after being deemed 'too disruptive'. (The setting has long shut down and its neglect is something that irks Khaliq).
"In recent years I got diagnosed with ADHD and so I've reflected on that. I was non-stop, asking questions, and teachers found my hyperactivity too difficult, so they went for the easy option of sending me to this alternative youth setting. It was a miracle and a blessing to be honest, because of the people there that I came into contact with."
An only child, Khaliq's father was a factory worker and his mother struggled to support his school work, with a family friend attending parents' evenings with him because she felt her English was too poor. He says there were few role models around him to aspire to do anything different.
"Then I went to the youth centre and it changed. They encouraged me to tap into what I was passionate about, which was computers. I used to finish school, get home and bang away on my keyboard until I went to sleep. They helped me harness that."
From an unpromising start, Khaliq went on to study computer science at Aston University, achieving a first class honours as one of the highest achievers in his year. That opened doors, taking him on to a graduate scheme with global firm Experian and then on to work with other major companies in the world, including a stint working on an IT transformation project in Texas, USA.
He was also part of a team at Birmingham City Council creating job opportunities linked to European funding. He currently works for JLR.
"I've benefited from being a part of social mobility initiatives at work where I've been partnered up with the very senior executives, where they have reached down and pulled me up, and that's inspired me to do the same. I look around me in Ward End and see all this potential, all the kids like me, and know we can use that capability and knowledge better than we do. I could live anywhere really but this is home; my wife has moved here, we are raising our children here. It's the community I want to be in, but it has to get a better deal than it is now."
Among the ways he is paying it forward are stints on governing bodies at local schools. He also mentors young people from the community.
He highlights a long list of examples of 'neglect' in his community that he says need sorting. "We have longstanding flooding issue outside Ward End fire station that never gets resolved and it's been going on for ten years. We have a library that's on the verge of closure because it needs huge investment, operating with a temporary boiler and a leaking roof, and schools that need parents to volunteer to run their own libraries as a stop gap. We have one of the worst rates of childhood literacy yet when you have libraries closed most days and schools lacking easy access to books, how are we going to give youngsters a fighting chance?"
He's scathing about the promised positive benefits for Ward End from the HS2 build, claiming residents are suffering all the disruption and none of the gains. "HS2 took just under a third of Ward End away and promised jobs, and money to invest back into our communities but all we have had is chaos," he claimed.
He describes promises of enforcement around flytipping and CCTV at local hotspots as 'unfulfilled'. Campaigns to make school roads one-way because of the congestion generated every morning have fallen on deaf ears, he claims.
A problem with groups of men hanging around on street corners or outside businesses, smoking and drinking, could be resolved with a community order; while the prevalence of nitrous oxide could be stamped out with a purge on local outlets and more police enforcement, particularly against groups inhaling the gas before driving.
He speaks of taking the keys off one young driver he spied sitting in his car inhaling the gas with friends. "I told him if he gave me the balloons he could have his keys back. I told him I was not going to allow him to hurt himself or others."
Khaliq says he's involved in positive initiatives - among them a 'clean your own street' scheme that's got residents out on Sundays for an hour at a time to pick up rubbish, and a local football initiative backed by scores of kids who'd otherwise be hanging around bored are among them.
He's devised a six point manifesto with residents including cleaner safer streets, save Ward End library, more job opportunities locally from major developments, better funding for youth services and SEND education, tough on crime and anti social behaviour including nitrous oxide use, and giving businesses a stronger collective voice.
He wants voters to trust in him - but if they can't, he wants them to vote anyway. "This election will change the way our city is governed for the next four years. Don't be silent. Vote, have your say, even if it's not for me," he added.
Khaliq is one of eight candidates for voters to choose from. They are: Mohammed Aikhlaq, Labour; Naz Ali, Liberal Democrats; Maria Green, Reform UK; Harris Khaliq, Independent; Aashima Mehta, Local Conservatives; Julian Nistor, Workers' Party; Mahreen Tasleem, Independent; Catherine Turner, Green Party.
