I’ll defend health and social care
LABOUR’S candidate in the Halton Castle ward by-election is former Castlefields resident and NHS worker Chris Carlin.
The party’s Halton branch announced the candidacy on its Facebook page on Saturday, January 20, saying it was ‘delighted’ to unveil its selection to contend the vacant ward seat.
Mr Carlin is a former Lib Dem councillor who stood down from his former party alongside two other renegade councillors in 2010 in protest at the thenCoalition Government’s cuts to public services.
In the party blurb online, the party said Mr Carlin is 45 and lives in Runcorn with his partner Victoria and his 11-year-old daughter Olivia.
He was born in Liverpool and moved to Runcorn in 1984, living in Halton Castle ward from the age of 14 and remaining a Castlefields resident until his late 20s.
Campaign images showed Mr Carlin canvassing with Halton MP Derek Twigg and councillors including his potential future ward colleague Cllr Ellen Cargill.
He now works for NHS Halton Clinical Commissioning Group.
The Labour Party branch said he has a passion for supporting residents and has worked much of his professional career working for charities such as Four Estates and St Helens Voluntary And Community Action.
It said that he now heads a Halton project in the NHS dealing with factors affecting health such as poverty and isolation.
The party said Mr Carlin’s neighbourhood links and contacts make him the ‘ideal’ candidate for the area.
Mr Carlin said: “Our NHS is not safe under this Government.
“Only Labour is committed to protecting and defending it.
“I am determined to defend local health and social care services here in Halton Castle ward.
“Labour has helped achieve the building and opening of Castlefields Health Centre and other facilities in Runcorn.
“We must not allow the Tories to keep attacking and undermining local health services here, only Labour will protect our NHS.” ●