This article originally appeared on Shaun Bailey's website. Shaun is a London wide GLA Member and the 2021 Conservative Mayoral candidate.

Born and bred in west London, Shaun Bailey is running as the Conservative candidate for the city’s top job in next year’s mayoral election. Here’s his story so far…

‘I was born in the old Paddington Hospital in 1971 and grew up in west London with my single-parent mother. We were really, really broke, though my brother and I never knew it. We were surrounded by lovely people in a diverse, multicultural area: I came across a lot of Irish people, Nigerian families, Vietnamese kids… We got on marvellously, and that really structured my view of the world.

Notting Hill Carnival for me was big: our annual finances to an extent relied on it, because my granny and my late grandad ran a patty stall. I was constantly pressing my mum to go off to the soundsystems, where I learned to dance and became a real hip hop fan. There’s a direct link between me getting into Public Enemy and me getting involved in public life.

I started working with a youth group in Neasden, and that’s how I got into youth work. I started looking for jobs for boys, as an alternative to them selling drugs. The MyGeneration charity was an extension of that and it grew far beyond what I had ever imagined. We were running an education project, a girls’ group, anti-crime programmes and an enormous football club to attract people to the job club. I used to joke  to the kids, “You’re my best chance at having rich mates, so you’d better do well!” But it was tough to raise funds. I realised that I was running out of steam and I gave the projects to people who could keep them going financially and emotionally.

I remember speaking to one of the parents and they said, “Shaun, you always preach to the children and it’s time for a demonstration.” That’s how I went into politics. A strategist called Steve Hilton had seen me speak. He introduced me to David Cameron – this was when he was the leader of the opposition and I had no idea who he was. There was a vibe there, and they said to me, “You should become a Tory candidate.” It was not something I had dreamed about, but I thought: if I get into politics I could show the kids there’s nowhere a poor kid can’t be.