Five candidates to fight Alyn & Deeside

FIVE candidates will contest the Welsh Assembly by-election in Alyn & Deeside following the death of Labour’s Carl Sargeant, it has been confirmed after the close of nominations.

Contenders include Mr Sargeant’s son Jack Sargeant, who said after he was selected as Labour’s prospective candidate last week that he would fight to represent local people “in the proud tradition of my father”.

He has vowed to find out the truth behind his father’s death in an apparent suicide in November.

Mr Sargeant Snr had been suspended from the party and dismissed as a Welsh Assembly minister following unspecified allegations about his personal conduct.

The Conservative candidate is Sarah Atherton, a former district nurse and social worker.

Standing for the Liberal Democrats is bank worker Donna Lalek, while the Plaid Cymru candidate is Wrexham councillor Carrie Harper.

Duncan Rees, an environmental campaigner and charity worker, is the Green Party candidate.

Ukip is not fielding a candidate despite having come third with 17.35% of the vote in the seat at the Welsh Assembly election in 2016.

The party said it would not contest the by-election if Jack Sargeant was a candidate, “out of respect to the late Carl Sargeant”.

The by-election is in a firstpast-the-post Assembly seat and the related North Wales regional “top-up” proportional representation seats are not affected.