WARRINGTON’S sitting Mayor Cllr Faisal Rashid has been selected to contest the Warrington South seat for Labour at the forthcoming General Election on June 8.
Commenting on his selection Faisal said: “I’m absolutely thrilled and honoured to have been selected as Warrington South’s Labour candidate for the forthcoming general election.
“I fell in love with Warrington – the town, its green open spaces, and its people – on my first visit in 1998 and came to live here with my family.
“With my passion for economic development, support for small businesses and community cohesion, I continuously strive to make a difference. I’ve been a Labour Borough and Parish Councillor for a number of years now, and most recently have been privileged to become Mayor of Warrington, the first Asian in 170 years of Mayoral history.
“Standing as the Labour candidate is the ultimate opportunity to make a difference for Warrington South in Parliament.
“I have a wonderful team of supporters and volunteers around me from all parts of the constituency and the team is buzzing about the next few weeks. With the great turnout for Jeremy Corbyn’s visit, door knocking sessions and town centre launch, our campaign is already out of the blocks and off to a flying start. We are confident and absolutely ready to take the fight to the Tories. Now it is time for a positive change and a fresh start here.
“This is a Labour town through and through and I’m proud to have been part of its forward thinking council. It hasn’t been easy battling massive central government funding cuts to maintain services here and keep a strong local economy, but I firmly believe Warrington deserves a lot more than it is currently getting. This general election will be a choice between a Labour Party that will stand up for the people of Warrington or a Conservative Party that only looks after the privileged few.”
Steve Wright, chair of Warrington South Constituency Labour Party said: “I would like to congratulate Cllr Faisal Rashid on being selected as our candidate in the forthcoming general election. Faisal had had a fantastic year as Mayor of Warrington and has made contact with people in every part of the town and from all walks of life.
“He has also raised an amazing amount of money for local charities! He really understands our town and is an experienced councillor. It is great to know that we have a local candidate who really gets what makes Warrington tick and also knows the pressures we face. Voters in Warrington South can be confident that in Faisal they will be represented by an excellent and professional MP who has their very best interests at heart.
“I am very proud that as a constituency we have a great team of volunteers – people are excited about the coming weeks. I am confident that we will all back Faisal to the hilt and support him in running an excellent and positive campaign. ”
Cllr Rashid will announce that he will step down as Mayor, which is a non political role, with deputy Cllr Les Morgan standing in at forthcoming engagements.
The seat is currently held for the Conseratives by David Mowat who has won the last two General Elections.
Cllr Rashid out campaigning with Jeremy Corbyn
Warrington South results 2015
Bob Barr (Liberal Democrats) 3335
Kevin Bennett (TUSC) 238
Nick Bent (Labour) 23178
Stephanie Davies (Green) 1765
Mal Lingley (UKIP) 4909
David John Mowat (Conservative) 25928 (Elected)
Turnout 59548 (70%)
6 Comments
Obvious choice but would have been probably better held back for in five year times when Labour may actually be an electable party with a strong leader.
Waste of local talent – will lose all credibility fighting an election for Corbyn
‘Green open spaces’ – is he having a laugh? Under this council they have all been built on – there’s hardly a mature tree or blade of grass left, unlike Burtonwood where no new development gets passed by our (completely unbiased) planning department or some reason 😉
Barbara, the countrywide attack on the Green Belt and our ‘green open spaces’ has been enabled by the Conservative government making changes to planning legislation and the emphasis on ‘house building’ and wildly exaggerated figures of ‘housing need’ are nothing more than a means of providing the fat cat Tory developers a means to make ever increasing profits.
Locally, I agree, we have a planning dept all too keen to pander to developers who prefer the higher profit green sites to brownfield, and despite being a Labour majority town we have a regeneration officer who Thatcher would be proud of and who our local councillors (of all parties) seem to trail behind like disoriented sheep.
So what’s the solution to save our precious green land? Do we vote for David Mowatt who is just sitting on his hands saying ‘nothing can be done’? Do we vote for the Lib Dems whose campaigners are basically saying the same thing and who are nothing but political careerists putting up a farce of a fight? or do we vote for ‘anyone who will put Corbyn in power’ and hope that we can delay as much as possible any further destruction of our green land before Jeremy is able to stamp on the fat cat developers? because he is the only one who will!
Sankey Valley Park is beautiful
I think Cllr Faisal Rashid has made a very good Mayor. The Labour party did well in Warrington South in the last elections and there is a very good chance they could take the seat in the next. All the negative press about Jeremy Corbyn may have been designed to turn voters away from him but it appears to be having the opposite effect. People are not stupid, we all know who owns the press and why they, the banks and big business are so afraid of Jeremy becoming Prime Minister!
People are sick of constant cuts and an ever increasing decline in living standards and being told it’s all due to ‘austerity’. ‘Austerity’ is a farce – it’s nothing but an excuse to fleece the people whilst the fat cat developers have never had it so good. When Corbyn puts an end to off-shore tax evasion there will be plenty of money to put into the health service, to look after our old people and to educate our kids. It’s time to rid ourselves of the self-serving, war-mongering elements in government. Corbyn is fair minded and a peacemaker and life would be easier for everyone (except the fat cats) if he becomes leader of our country.