Anti-cuts campaigners put up candidates in Wirral by-elections

Dec 19 2012 by Liam Murphy, Birkenhead News

ANTI-CUTS campaigners are fielding candidates in two by-elections to be held in Wirral early next year.

The group Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts are hoping to cause upsets when voters go to the polls in Heswall and Leasowe and Moreton East wards in January.

The by-elections follow the deaths of Heswall Conservative councillor Peter Johnson and Leasowe and Moreton East Labour councillor Anne McArdle.

The Conservatives have selected Kathryn Hodson, wife of current Heswall councillor Andrew Hodson, to be their candidate in the election in January.

She said she realised it would be “a difficult task before her in filling the shoes of the late Cllr Johnson but she would endeavour to keep up the standards he had set”.

Against her will be Labour’s Michael Holliday, who group leader Cllr Phil Davies described as “very active in the community”.

Other candidates are David Scott for UKIP, Barbara Burton for the Green Party, and Gregory North for Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts.

In Leasowe and Moreton East, Labour have Wirral actress and comedienne Pauline Daniels standing against former Leasowe councillor Ian Lewis for the Conservatives.

Daniel Clein is standing for the Liberal Democrats, James McGinley for the Green Party, Susan Whitham for UKIP and Mark Halligan for Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts.