Labour select Ben Wood as North Shropshire by-election candidate
The Labour party has selected Ben Wood as its candidate for the North Shropshire by-election.
Ben will be standing in the by-election which is set to take place on Thursday 16 December 2021 following the resignation of the Conservative MP Owen Paterson over the MP paid lobbying scandal.
Ben said: “Being Oswestry born-and-bred, I’ve had enough of people taking North Shropshire for granted.
“I went to Woodside Primary School, Marches Secondary School and started working life in a local hardware shop. I was born at the maternity unit in the Orthopaedic, shut down by the Tory government.
“The closure of local ambulance stations was the last straw, so I’ve put my name forward to fight for our towns and villages.
“I’ll be putting forward a new plan with fresh ideas to give our area a brighter future, but I also want to bring a sense of decency back to our politics.
“North Shropshire needs a voice at Westminster who will always work for them. This is a two-horse race between Labour and the Tories - and I’m the only candidate who will stand up for our towns and villages at every opportunity.”
On the circumstances of the by-election being called, Ben said: “This by-election has been caused by Tory sleaze and the Prime Minister’s refusal to deal with corruption.
“Local people are quite rightly proud of where they live and they have been let down very badly. This by-election gives them the chance to scrub North Shropshire clean of Tory sleaze.
“We need an MP who will address the Conservatives’ failures in North Shropshire - on fighting crime, on tackling the cost of living crisis, on underfunding local services and on failing to address the climate emergency.”
The Conservative party yesterday revealed their candidate as Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst.
Local candidate Kirsty Walmsley has been announced as standing for Reform UK.
The Liberal Democrats and Green Party are expected to name their candidates in the coming days.
