WITH the general election around the corner, The Bolton News is running a series of features with candidates vying for your vote. Here, politics reporter Elaine O'Flynn speaks to the Conservative candidate for Bolton South East, Cllr Mudasir Dean.

STRONG immigration controls, scrapping the bedroom tax and better health care are the policies a Bradshaw councillor is building his campaign on to become the next MP for Bolton South East.

Cllr Mudasir Dean will take on Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi this May, and says he is the only local candidate to stand up for residents.

A staunch campaigner, the 43-year-old business owner hit the headlines across the country with his bid to see each school in Bolton fly the Union flag — but also ran into trouble when he was revealed as one of the councillors to be summonsed to court for failing to pay his council tax on time.

Now, the father-of-four from Breightmet readily admits he is in for a fight if he is to unseat Ms Qureshi, who holds an 8,000 majority — but he is ready for battle.

“I’m local, I have lived in Bolton my entire life — my friends are here, my family are here, and because of that I understand the issues faced by people in Bolton South East better than anyone else”, he said.

Cllr Dean joined the Conservative party formally a week after Labour won a landslide victory at the 1997 General Election, bringing Tony Blair to power.

Since then Cllr Dean says he’s been active in Bolton political life, standing for election in Tonge with the Haulgh and Great Lever, before being elected to Bradshaw in 2012.

He was also the Conservative candidate for Rochdale at the last general election, where he doubled the Tory share of the vote in comparison to the previous vote.

Talking about his time on the council, Cllr Dean said: “It has been incredible — it has been great working on the big things, but also working with those individual families to make their lives better.

“Now there is no bigger honour for me than to be selected for the Conservatives to represent the people I have grown up with, the people I have gone to school with.”

But Cllr Dean says he recognises he has an uphill struggle, particularly with the ‘difficult choices’ and cuts that the Conservative government have inflicted on areas like Bolton.

He deflected suggestions that Conservatives councils have had less cuts levied on them then northern, Labour councils, adding: “Nobody goes into politics to make difficult decisions that affect people’s lives — it is because they want to do positive things for people.

“The difference in the north and the south, with Conservative run councils, is that they are already quite lean so that is why they are not cut as much as larger, Labour run councils.

“The Conservatives have had to make those decisions for a reason — we couldn’t carry on spending more money, we have had to tighten our belts.”

The Tories in government, Cllr Dean added, have helped residents living in Bolton South East, with around 5,570 apprenticeships created since the last election and around 42,000 people benefitting from a tax cut.

He applauded the recent move to devolve the entire £6 billion NHS budget for Greater Manchester to health care leaders and town halls — arguing if elected he would lobby for politics to be taken out of healthcare.

“People have been talking about devolution for a long time but it is the Conservatives who delivered it”, he said.

“I think it is a positive thing we have done, it is about bringing things locally, making decisions here and it’s not the people sitting in Whitehall — it is up to us.

“I want to see politicians from across all the parties form an all-party working group, that would look at the NHS over the next 30 to 40 years — I want to see politics taken out of health care.”

Cllr Dean says he has strong views on Europe, which he would vote to leave should there be a referendum, adding: “I think we should have a good relationship with Europe, particularly with our economic interests, but I am not happy with our laws being decided abroad.”

If he was Prime Minister, strict laws he would enforce include no immigration within the EU unless a job is lined up when you arrive, and no access to the NHS, free education or benefits for five years after arrival.

Despite his strong line, Cllr Dean says he would not join UKIP.

“If people are going to vote for UKIP than they are voting for Ed Miliband”, he said.

“At the end of the day either David Cameron or Ed Miliband is going to be Prime Minister, no one else.

“I don’t need to be a member of UKIP — the Conservatives are leading the agenda on this issue and are the only party that have promised a vote on membership.”

However Cllr Dean says he disagrees with the national party on their controversial under-occupancy charge for social housing residents, the so-called ‘bedroom tax’.

“We don’t have the housing facilities, there isn’t enough one or two bedroom properties for this in Bolton, which is why I am against it”, he said.

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