‘Genocide in Gaza,’ housing and safer streets are behind a former Labour Party caseworker’s decision to stand as an independent candidate in Slough at the general election on July 4.

Human rights lawyer Azhar Chohan said he wants to stand to become Slough’s next MP because the town’s ‘diverse communities feel a lack of genuine representation from the major parties on critical issues affecting them'.

He said: “As a member of Slough’s community, I have witnessed first-hand the frustrations and concerns of my fellow residents. It's time for a change, a voice that truly speaks for Slough, and gives the electorate a credible alternative to the status quo at the ballot box.”

Mr Chohan has worked as a legal caseworker for Labour MPs for some 23 years but resigned in April, a spokesperson for his campaign told the Observer.

READ MORE: Slough candidates call for change

In a statement, his campaign said he would ‘focus on key issues including calling on the government to reassess its role in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, build more affordable housing, make our streets and homes safer and provide opportunities for local businesses and young people'.

Israel has been accused by South Africa of conducting genocide in its war in the Gaza Strip – a claim it says is ‘wholly unfounded'.

A spokesperson for Mr Chohan said Gaza was ‘one of the main issues’ that matter to people in Slough, although not the sole focus of his campaign.

But Mr Chohan will compete with another candidate hoping to challenge the main parties, Adnan Shabbir of the Workers Party of Britain, whose candidates also emphasise support for Palestine in their campaigns.

Slough’s Labour MP Tan Dhesi wrote in the Slough Observer in March that he ‘supported calls for an immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza. However he faced criticism for abstaining on a vote supporting a ceasefire in parliament last year.

Speaking earlier this week Mr Dhesi told the Observer that voting Labour in Slough would help bring ‘change’ after '14 long years of Tory failures’ in government.

Chelsea Whyte, the Liberal Democrat candidate, says Slough ‘has been taken for granted by an out-of-touch Conservative Government that has failed to get the basics right and lurched from crisis to crisis'.

She added that a vote for the Liberal Democrats ‘is a vote for a fair deal'.

The Conservative Party has not yet announced its candidate in Slough and has not been available for comment when contacted. The Observer will aim to speak to every candidate standing in the election.