With a once-in-a-generation snap election just around the corner, it’s time for UK residents to visit their polling stations and vote for their local MP.
This article was updated on December 9.
In the Bury South constituency, seven parties will battle it out.
Under the leadership of Ivan Lewis, the Labour party have gained the most votes in the Bury South area in every general election since 1997, ending a previous Conservative stranglehold.
After winning a majority 53.3% (27,165) of the votes in the area in 2017 to the Conservatives 41.6% (21,200 votes), former long-standing Labour MP Lewis will run for the Independent party this time around.
A year earlier, 54.51% of voters in the area voted to leave the EU – something Britain is still in the process of three-and-a-half years down the line.
The next big step in negotiations is the December 12 general election, and residents of Bury South (Prestwich, Whitefield, and Radcliffe) can have their say by voting any one of the candidates listed below.
Lucy Burke – Labour Party
After Lewis stepped down as leader of the Bury South Labour party constituency two years ago, it’s now over to life-long trade unionist Lucy Burke to try to deliver a seventh successive victory in the area for Labour.
Burke was an overwhelmingly popular choice to lead Labour’s next parliamentary election campaign for Bury South, winning 130 out of 180 votes in last month’s election.
Christian Wakeford – The Conservative Party
Wakeford is a councillor serving for both Pendle Hill and Barrowford council.
As well as previously serving in the communication and insurance sectors, Wakeford has experience as a youth worker.
Wakeford is pro-Brexit, and shares Boris Johnson’s idea that Britain must leave the EU as soon as possible so the country can move forward.
Richard Kilpatrick – Liberal Democrats
A councillor for Didsbury West, Richard Kilpatrick is just a year into his career in politics serving as member of the Liberal Democrat Party currently led by Jo Swinson.
The 26-year-old’s previous background is as a history and politics teacher, but now in his career as a politician he hopes to use his young mind to bring about fresh ideas in the Bury South area.
At the centre of the Green Parties’ policies is the issue of the environment, and Bury South’s Green Party representative Glyn Heath has been an environmental campaigner for over 40 years.
Heath is from Bury, and like Wakeford and Kilpatrick has experience as a councillor – serving as councillor of Elton Ward for four years between 1995 and 1999.
Aside of Brexit, the three letters on everybody’s lips in relation to the 2019 election are ‘NHS.’
One person who certainly knows a lot about the country’s health service is Livesey, having served as an NHS manager for 36 years.
Now retired, she is focused on helping deliver what the British people voted for in June 2016.
Gemma Evans – Women’s Equality Party (WEP)
As a domestic abuse survivor, Evans this year decided to stand as a Bury South candidate in order to encourage more women to speak out up if they’ve about the topic of abuse.
It’s the first time the WEP have run in the Bury South area following sexual harassment allegations made towards Lewis in 2017.
The WEP will also run in Luton North, Dover and Sheffield Hallam as well as areas of London – in areas where an MP in the area has been accused of sexually related allegations.
Lewis has been the central figure in Bury North over the past two decades, under his leadership Bury South has been a secure seat for Labour.
Lewis was accused of sexual harassment, but he stepped down from the Labour Party a year ago having lost confidence in Jeremy Corbyn due to his alleged anti-Semitism.
This time around, he will run independently.
Part of the #BurySouth area? Your vote counts
Here’s a guide of #BurySouth ahead of the #GE2019
Lucy Burke (Lab)
Christian Wakeford (Cons)
Richard Kilpatrick (Lib Dems)
Glyn Heath (Green)
Andrea Livesey (Brexit)
Gemma Evans (WEP)
Ivan Lewis (Independent)@MM_newsonline pic.twitter.com/YD5OdmuN3t— Dane Massey (@danemassey97) December 9, 2019
