I have known Hoz since 1988. He was playing Lord Saladin the lawful good Holy Knight. But that is another story for another day. (But one which, if you ask Hoz, will at once amaze you whilst also demonstrating his eclectic nature, his youthful thinking, his imagination, leadership and his inbuilt sense of community. If you get a chance, ask him!) we have been friends ever since. He is a fiercely loyal man, longstanding relationships are important to him. This is a defining attribute of Hoz’s.

Hoz has known tragedy in his life, he has experienced financial troubles, lost businesses through political turmoil, no fault of his own and in every situation that disaster has struck, he bounces back. He is resilient to a core. His empathy, positivity and understanding carries him through life. These are more of his amazing attributes.
When some of good friends passed away, Hoz is the person who connects with their parents and is able to cross those generational barriers. Your gran would love him, he would love your gran. It’s the ancient Persian culture of family first that runs through his veins.

Hoz cares deeply about people, he stands up for the downtrodden and fights against injustice with a passion. He cannot abide a bully. The saying goes, ‘The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing’ With Hoz at your side evil will not triumph, he could not stand by.

Hoz is driven to act and started trying to influence change when he set up Lobbi, an organisation that looked to unite political parties from all sides in an effort to work together to find better solutions than those offered by our current system. Now he’s trying to change the system from within.

He will be brilliant whatever he does. He will certainly influence change. Give him the chance as an elected member of parliament.

Hussain ‘Hoz’ Shafiei attended my wedding in Dhaka at the rural international development project where I was working. During this visit, Hoz’s humanity shone through in his interactions with the mothers and children living there. He was very keen to learn about the project, its purpose and its programmes, quickly identifying how he could contribute positively whilst there.
Hussain ‘Hoz’ Shafiei has overcome a variety of challenges whilst I have known him. He is a learner and has benefited from a diverse career. He had commercial success whilst working in Qatar, gaining, through experience, an developedunderstanding of how markets work, the intricacies of financeand the realities of running a business.

On returning to the UK in 2011, Hoz worked within the public sector to achieve progress towards universal access to democracy; at local, national and international levels. He ably demonstrated being able to work effectively within teams and engage communities to work towards common good.

Hoz is a committed internationalist and holds a global perspective. Throughout the 35 years I have known him, Hoz’s actions have shown him to be a compassionate individual who aims to address injustices in his community and around the world. He instinctively acts as an friend and advocate to people he meets. I am sure he would quickly take on this role as an elected Member.