Andy Love thanked the Turkish-speaking communities for their support
Andy Love was given a fond send-off by London’s Turkish speakers in a meal to mark his service to the community.
The former Edmonton MP, who stepped down earlier this year after 18 years in service, was shown a slideshow of the more prominent moments of his career at the event, which was also attended by his wife Ruth Rosenthal.
Mr Love spoke of his many happy memories after watching the compilation and named many Turkish-speaking councillors, including Ahmet Karahasan, with whom he worked throughout his career.
But he added that the fact he was no longer an MP did not mean he was leaving politics altogether: “I will continue to walk with you for Edmonton.”
In a short speech of tribute, Turkey’s consul general to London Emirhan Yorumlazlar praised Mr Love’s service: “I have been working in London for 15 months, but even in this short period of time I have been aware of the wonderful work you have done on behalf of our people.
“As we saw in the slideshow earlier, you have always supported the Turkish community – even 20-30 years ago.
“But now we see that we do not need help: we simply need to be more active as a part of society. We will always remember with gratitude what you have done for us.”
Mr Love continued by praising his successor, Kate Osamor, as somebody he believed would do important work for the Turkish speaking communities: “she is a very experienced politician. She understands the community’s needs very well. She led a fantastic election campaign.”
Individual guests also made speeches of their own and presented Mr Love with gifts during the event.
In addition to Mr Yorulmazlar, among those attending was Oya Tuncalı, the Turkish Cypriot representative in London; and Enfield councillors Ali Bakır, Ayfer Orhan, Nesimi Erbil, Yasemin Brett, Haydar Ulus and Güney Doğan.
Local politicians and diplomats attended the farewell dinner
In profile: Andy Love
Born in Scotland, Andy Love moved to London in 1974 and joined Labour the following year. He served as a councillor in Haringey in the 1980s before becoming a parliamentary officer for the Cooperative Party.
He contested the Edmonton seat in 1992 but lost by just 593 votes. He unseated the Conservative MP Ian Twinn five years later with a majority of 13,472 votes and held the seat for the next 18 years.
In parliament was is involved in many backbench groups and campaigns and served as parliamentary private secretary to Jacqui Smith when she was the health minister, later following her to the Department of Trade and Industry. He was a member of the Public Accounts Committee and the Treasury Select Committee since 2005.