Esther Rantzen, who is standing as an independent for Luton South. Photograph: PA Wire/Chris Radburn
It's a beautiful spring morning and I'm standing outside Ealing town hall in west London, looking for the Man in the White Suit. Martin Bell, who overturned Neil Hamilton's vast Conservative majority in Tatton in 1997 to become the first independent candidate to win a seat in the Commons since 1951, is the éminence blanc of the burgeoning independent movement and is here to endorse the candidacy of Sam Akaki, a political lobbyist for CND who has chucked in his job to stand for parliament as an independent.
Though at 71 he has decided he's too old to stand himself, Bell is working hard on behalf of other independents, and has produced a set of principles for ethical political behaviour. The principles, founded on "selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership", are so obvious that you wonder why they had to be set down, but then you remember the expenses scandal and Stephen Byers's admission that he is a "taxi for hire", and realise why it is necessary to start from scratch. The fledgling Independent Network insists that all the candidates it backs – 20 so far and rising fast as the election approaches – subscribe to the principles as a signal of their commitment to clean up parliament.
Last year, Bell published a book on the expenses scandal called A Very British Revolution. "We cannot return to where we were, which was the politics of the pig trough, because the people will not stand for it," he wrote. The revolution, however, seems a long way off on this bright spring morning. Akaki, who likes to call himself "Uncle Sam" (in an avuncular rather than a pro-American way) has gathered together about 20 supporters to hear him declare his candidacy. An independent from the neighbouring constituency of Brentford & Isleworth, a middle-aged woman with bright red hair and the magnificent name of Teresa Venneck-Surplice, has come along to lend her backing. It is a warm and friendly gathering, but it doesn't feel as if the Bastille is about to be stormed.
"I became a member of parliament entirely by accident and without intending to," Bell tells the gathering. "I had never mapped out a parliamentary ambition. It is something that happened to me, but it was a huge honour to be the first elected independent since 1951. I found there really is a useful place for independents in the House of Commons because [for them] every vote is a free vote, and you're much more influential than the lobby fodder of the backbenchers of the main parties
Click on link to read this excellent article about Independent candidates.
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