The Conservative share of the vote more than doubled between 2001 and 2010, but in Bermondsey & Old Southwark the party remains in a distant third place behind the Liberal Democrats and Labour.
The latest candidate to take on the challenge is JP Floru, a Belgian-born councillor in the City of Westminster.
Listen to the audio clip above to hear his views on housing, the Big Society, localism and more.
• This is part of a series of interviews with Bermondsey & Old Southwark parliamentary candidates: see also Kingsley Abrams, Andrew Beadle, Steve Freeman and Lucy Hall.
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