Ibrahim Dogus

Ibrahim Dogus (born July 1980) is a Turkish-born British politician, entrepreneur and restaurateur. He is founder of SME4Labour. He is also founder of the Centre for Turkey Studies and Centre for Kurdish Progress, and an active organiser for the Turkish and Kurdish community in London and the UK. He now owns three restaurants: Troia, Westminster Kitchen, and Cucina, all close to Westminster Bridge. He attracted media attention in 2017 when he fed hundreds of emergency service workers for free at Troia in the wake of the 2017 Westminster attack: all three of his restaurants were located in the cordoned-off exclusion zone near the attack. In 2019 he launched "With Love", a "pay-it-forward cafe" where the extra customers pay supports the homeless and struggling families.

Since January 2019, Dogus has been targeted by far-right groups and even received death threats after the restaurants he founded included on the bottom of their receipts the message: "Brexit is bad. Immigrants make Britain great. They also cooked and served your food today." TripAdvisor had to suspend reviews of Westminster Kitchen.

Dogus is the owner of the beer brand Bira, which is produced under contract by Molson Coors UK, and marketed as the world's first beer made as an accompaniment to kebabs. In the subsequent court case, Dogus claimed the cash was legitimate and that he had sent it to Turkey in order to repay his brother-in-law, who had lent him money for his wedding. A spokesman for Mr Dogus said "Mr Dogus rejects, in the strongest possible terms, any allegation of wrongdoing or illegality. He condemns any individual, organisation or business that does not pay its taxes fully. Throughout the case that took place almost a decade ago, Mr Dogus sought to cooperate fully with the court and instructed his solicitor and legal team to do the same." It also organises the British Kebab Awards, which aims to promote cross-community dialogue as well as the Kurdish-dominated kebab industry: "Greeks, Cypriots, Turks, Kurds, they all sit together side by side. They eat and they talk."

Politics Dogus' connection with the Labour Party goes back to when he was sixteen, when he was invited by a teacher to address an NUT meeting, to talk about Kurdish human rights. and became an activist on Turkish and Kurdish politics in the early 2000s. having previously stood unsuccessfully for selection in Enfield Southgate in 2014 to contest the 2015 general election. Despite not being elected, Dogus gained a 9.25% swing for Labour, in line with the national average; and finished in second place with 14,857 votes (38.4%), which was the closest any Labour candidate had come to winning the seat.

The following year he was elected as a member of Lambeth London Borough Council for the Bishop's ward, and in May 2018 he was selected by Labour to be the next deputy mayor of the borough, He was re-elected in 2022 to represent the Waterloo and South Bank ward.

Dogus supported Yvette Cooper in the 2015 Labour Leadership election, helping to raise £2,200 for her campaign Dogus hosted a fundraiser for Owen Smith at one of his restaurants during the 2016 Labour Leadership election. Jeremy Corbyn celebrated his victory in the same place. and the Labour Campaign for Gambling Reform.

In October 2019, Dogus was shortlisted to be the Labour candidate for the seat of Vauxhall in South London, losing out to Florence Eshalomi. In November 2019, Dogus was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate for West Bromwich East following the decision by the incumbent MP and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson, to resign at the 2019 general election. He lost the seat to the Conservative candidate, Nicola Richards following a 12% swing toward the Conservatives.