Persons of Interest-The Leicester campaigner driven by community, not politics

Zuffar Iqbal Haq has spent much of his life campaigning for ordinary people in Leicester, often focusing on the practical issues that affect everyday lives. A businessman turned community activist and politician, his route into public life did not begin through party politics, but through personal experience, family hardship, and a determination to challenge institutions when he believed they were failing local people.

Born in Leicester on Buxton Street, near the corner of Melbourne Road, he describes himself as “a Leicester lad through and through.” His family’s connection to the city stretches back more than a century. His grandfather first arrived in Leicester in 1919, and his father settled in the city in 1938. Their contribution to Leicester’s Asian community is commemorated with a blue plaque on the corner of Buxton Street and Melbourne Road.

Haq attended Charnwood Infant School, Avenue Junior School, Lancaster Boys’ School and Gateway College before briefly studying business at De Montfort University. At the age of seventeen, following his father’s retirement, he decided to leave education and enter the workplace to help support the family. He worked initially in retail before opening his own business in his early twenties, selling videotapes, audio tapes and batteries. Over time, he expanded into a chain of discount retail stores across the Midlands, including shops in Derby, Nottingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Long Eaton and Retford. He later diversified into wholesale and property investment.

Despite his success in business, his life changed dramatically in 2000 with the birth of his first child, a daughter with severe special needs. She required extensive medical care, including tube feeding, and spent much of the first six months of her life in hospital. The experience exposed Haq to the pressures facing the NHS and the difficulties many families encountered when trying to access support and services.

During this period, a hospital consultant encouraged him to become involved in campaigning on behalf of children’s healthcare services. Haq later described this as the moment that first drew him toward public activism. At the same time, he became involved in a local campaign concerning a GP surgery on East Park Road, where 1,800 patients faced being transferred elsewhere following a dispute between doctors. Many of those affected were elderly residents who struggled with mobility and language barriers. Haq organised protests, spoke publicly to the media, and successfully negotiated with the health authority to secure continued local GP provision. The campaign became one of the defining moments of his early public life.

From then on, he increasingly became known as a community campaigner willing to challenge official bodies and advocate for residents. He attended NHS board meetings, raised questions publicly, and developed a reputation for persistence and directness. He often focused on practical solutions rather than ideological arguments, contending that public services should adapt to the needs of patients and local communities.

Haq joined the Liberal Democrats in 2003, motivated largely by the party’s opposition to the Iraq War and its support for international cooperation and social justice. He admired figures such as Charles Kennedy, Paddy Ashdown, Vince Cable and Norman Lamb, and believed the party reflected his values on healthcare, poverty, Europe and humanitarian issues. He later campaigned strongly for the UK to remain in the European Union during the Brexit referendum.

Although he first stood for election as a councillor in the early 2000s and later as a parliamentary candidate, Haq continued to view himself primarily as a campaigner rather than a traditional politician. Over the years, he became involved in numerous healthcare-related campaigns in Leicester, including supporting the establishment of walk-in centres, campaigning for improved parking at Leicester Royal Infirmary, and helping develop the hospital “hopper” bus service designed to reduce reliance on taxis between hospital sites.

Haq was also a vocal critic of outsourcing within the NHS, particularly concerning support services at Leicester’s hospitals. He campaigned against private contracts he believed undermined standards and supported bringing services back under NHS control.

In 2023, he was elected as a Liberal Democrat councillor, strengthening his role within local government and giving him what he describes as “the ability to do something about things.” In 2024, he stood unsuccessfully as the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Leicester East.

Throughout his public life, Haq has repeatedly spoken about Leicester’s social and economic challenges, including poverty, health inequality and the decline of the city’s textile industry.

In April 2026 he was interviewed by Ben Jackson on BBC Radio Leicester about health inequalities following a Health Foundation report stating the number of years people in the UK spend in good health is falling.

He argues that Leicester has lost thousands of jobs in recent years and believes greater investment, better transport planning and stronger public services are needed to improve opportunities across the city.

Away from politics, Haq remains closely connected to family life. He has been married for around thirty years after meeting his wife in Pakistan during a trip accompanying his late mother, who was suffering from cancer and wished to undertake pilgrimage and to visit relatives. His wife is a solicitor and local councillor. Together they raised four children, although their daughter sadly died in 2009. Their three sons have pursued higher education; one is currently doing A levels and the other two are in medicine and dentistry.

Despite balancing business responsibilities with council duties and campaigning, Haq describes helping people as the main motivation that keeps him going. He often speaks emotionally about the influence of his parents, remembering their generosity and sense of community despite modest means. For Haq, politics has never primarily been about party ambition or career advancement, but about solving problems for people who feel unheard.

Outside work, he enjoys football, cricket, chess, cinema and spending time with his family. A lifelong Leicester City supporter, he still recalls celebrating the club’s Premier League triumph in 2016 as one of the great moments of his life.

Despite spending 40% of his waking hours on his Councillor role, working tirelessly to help Leicester people, he retains a sense of humour and mischief. He chuckles as he recounts an experience he had in a car taking Lord Ashdown, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party to the railway station. It was lunch time and Lord Ashdown opened his briefcase in the back of the car and took out a sandwich and asked Zuffar if he had eaten yet. Being humble and respectful he said he had, at which point Lord Ashdown tore the sandwich in half and handed one half to him.

For many in Leicester, Zuffar Haq is seen less as a conventional politician and more as a determined local campaigner, someone motivated by community, persistence and a belief that public institutions should work for the people they serve.

Sources:

• Ben Jackson – 27/04/2026 – BBC Sounds
• Interview with Councillor Zuffar Haq 06/05/26