Council boss selected as Labour MP candidate
ANDREW WESTERN WILL STAND IN SAFE LABOUR SEAT OF STRETFORD & URMSTON
TRAFFORD Council leader Andrew Western has been selected as Labour’s MP candidate for Stretford and Urmston.
The seat becomes vacant at the next General Election, due in 2024, after Kate Green announced in February she would not stand for re-election. She had represented the safe Labour seat since 2010 and easily beat the Tory candidate into second place with a majority of more than 16,000 votes in 2019.
She served as Shadow Secretary of State for Education from 2020 to 2021, and was Shadow Minister of State for Disabled People under Ed Milliband from 2013 to 2015 but said it was the ‘right time for me to move on to new opportunities.’
Yesterday it emerged her successor as Labour’s candidate would be Timperley-raised Coun Western, 37, who lives in Urmston.
Coun Western tweeted: “Absolutely delighted to have been selected as the @uklabour candidate for Stretford and Urmston, thank you to members for placing your trust in me!”
He was selected ahead of fellow Urmston resident and councillor Joanne Harding, and Iram Woolley. Some party members thought Gary Neville, who has recently become a Labour party member, was being groomed for the seat but he never put his name forward and was not on the longlist.
Coun Harding tweeted: “Congratulations to my colleague @AndrewHWestern – you will be a fantastic MP and I look forward to campaigning with and for you at the next election.”
Labour’s Denton and Reddish MP Andrew Gwynne tweeted: “Massive congratulations mate. Look forward to seeing you on the green benches (sooner rather than later!)”
Coun Western’s star is on the rise in the Labour party. Last week he won a vote to become the chairman of the Greater Manchester Transport Committee to head up the region’s big transport projects.
It means he will be a key decision-maker in how transport looks across the city region for the next 30 years.