The Tories have vowed to freeze council tax and scrap the town hall’s illegal publication Hackney Today if they win a majority for the first time since 1968.

The party has today launched its manifesto and officially announced its mayoral candidate, Imtiaz Lunat, who runs an electrical firm.

Imtiaz has lived in the borough for more than 25 years and first got involved in campaigning to oppose an “unfair and untransparent” consultation over a controlled parking zone in his area. Parking issues are high on his list of priorities should he be elected.

He said: “I am delighted to be the Conservative candidate to be the next Mayor of Hackney. I’ve brought up my family here and this is where I run my business.

“I want to do what I can to keep the cost of living down for families. I’ll freeze council tax – it’s gone up by 3 per cent this year.

“I’ll scrap the propaganda sheet Hackney Today and invest the savings in freezing council tax and cutting the price of parking permits.

“Over-zealous parking enforcement and high parking charges push up the cost of living, drive people out of town centres, harm local shops and make it difficult for friends and family to visit.

“In the last two years permits have gone up by up to 90pc (£112 to £213 for an average diesel car). I’ll halve this cost and introduce a free residents roamer scheme that will give permit holders the freedom to park in resident bays within any parking zone in the borough between 11am and 3pm.”

Imtiaz, who will appear at the North London Muslim Community Centre hustings on Wednesday, will also prioritise social isolation and loneliness.

He continued: “More than one in ten people in Hackney say they have too little contact with other people and feel socially isolated – that’s the highest rate for any council in England, and significantly higher than the inner London average of 7.7pc. We should be ashamed of that and I think the mayor can do more to bring people together.

“Solving the housing crisis has to be a priority. The research shows people want to live in streets not skyscrapers and I’ll make sure we build mid-rise, high density and good quality genuinely affordable housing.

“We also need to make it easier for people to extend their homes to keep their families together.”