The Voice profiles Josh Babarinde, saying there is a "high chance" that he will capture Eastbourne at the next election and become the Liberal Democrats' first black MP:
Babarinde, who has a Nigerian father, took an unconventional route into politics. As a volunteer youth worker in east London, he sought to turn around the lives of gang members by offering them a business opportunity fixing mobile phones.
He explains: "I would go on to estates at stupid-O’clock at night. I would go wear a big black coat, and inside it there’s all this phone repair paraphernalia. So I was going into stairwells where lads were smoking weed at night, and would say 'you can make cash from fixing phones, I can show you how, I can give you a demonstration right now.'
“And some of them thought I was an undercover police officer, or thought 'who is this dude, just rocking up on my estate?' But there’d be some who would give me the time of day, so I got some of them signed up."
His social enterprise, Cracked It, won contracts from several local authorities, and he won the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30, recognising the leading entrepreneurs in Britain.
