Liz aims to ‘make a difference’ and keep seat in Jim’s memory
LABOUR’S parliamentary candidate in the Heywood and Middleton by-election says she wants to retain the seat ‘in Jim Dobbin’s memory’.
Rossendale councillor Liz McInnes, who on Monday took to her soapbox in Middleton Gardens, along with Shadow Secretary of State for International Development Jim Murphy, told those gathered she wanted to ‘make a difference’ and was confident she would triumph in next week’s poll. The constituency also includes Castleton, Norden and Bamford.
Dozens gathered to hear the pair speak, with Labour supporters and hecklers making their opinions heard in equal measure.
Coun McInnes, a trade unionist and health worker, said: “I’ve seen growing inequality, the rise in the use of foodbanks, cuts to benefits, falling wages and rising energy prices. What’s happened in the last four years has done nothing for the people living in this area.
“I want to make a difference. I worked for the NHS, I’m not a professional politician. I’ve seen the damage to the NHS under this government.
“The Tories haven’t been fair to this area. And I want to keep this seat Labour in honour of Jim Dobbin’s memory. We’re confident.”
Mr Murphy - fresh from a 100-day tour for the Better Together Scottish referendum campaign - praised Ms McInnes for her two decades working as a scientist for the NHS.
Scores of hecklers - some of whom said they will vote Ukip - challenged him on immigration and Britain’s membership in the EU, with one angry onlooker telling him to ‘go back to Scotland’.
He said: “When I was in Scotland for the referendum, they told me to go to England. I can’t win.”
Mr Murphy later told the Observer he is not worried about Ukip claiming a shock victory, despite some Labour figures’ fears of Nigel Farage’s candidate John Bickley being a genuine threat.
He said: “If people don’t fancy the Tories, how can they flirt with Ukip? People here are good, common sense people - they don’t want anything to do with Ukip’s ideology.
This by-election is about the issues facing people - not Ukip.
“They’re super-charged Tories.”
BY-ELECTION candidates standing are:
John Bickley - UKIP Iain Gartside - Conservative Abi Jackson - Green Liz McInnes - Labour Anthony Smith - Lib Dem