The Green Party’s candidate for the Runcorn and Helsby by-election has insisted his party is the only option for “real change”.
Chris Copeman, who is a councillor for Cheshire West and Chester Borough Council, challenged the lack of change offered by the Labour party.
A by-election was triggered after MP Mike Amesbury announced he was standing down following his conviction for assaulting a constituent.
Copeman, 54, said: “We are the only party backing social equality.
“All the other parties are offering business as usual, whether its Reform, Labour, Conservatives or the Lib Dems.
“I think it’s fair to say the Green Party is the progressive voice in this country now.
“I think Labour has moved to the right and we are the party that is trying to look at social equality in this country and stick up for ordinary people’s rights.”
In last summer’s election, Mike Amesbury won 52.9% of the vote as the Labour candidate, followed by Reform’s Jason Moorcroft and Conservative Jade Marsden.
And Green finished fourth, with Copeman winning 2,715 votes, the equivalent of 6.4%.
He highlighted the two-child benefit cap – which was introduced by the Conservatives in 2017 – and the tightening of rules around disability benefits as two issues he would address.
Copeman added: “We are offering a total alternative to Reform and we are also offering quite a different set of offerings from the Labour party.
“We need to hear the green voice in this constituency.
“It’s really important that people have the opportunity to vote for a Green party and we are the only truly progressive voice in this constituency in this election.
“We want to stick up for disability benefits, we want to support people with disabilities, we oppose the two-child benefit cap.
“So we are the party for normal people.”
No date has yet been set for the by-election.
Labour (Karen Shore), Conservatives (Sean Houlston), Reform (Sarah Pochin), Liberal Democrats (Paul Duffy) and the Workers Party (Peter Ford) have all announced their candidates for the election.
Feature Image: Polling station sign. secretlondon123 from Wikimedia Commons. Free to use under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
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