The starting gun has been fired ahead of the summer’s general election with the launch of Labour’s campaign in Bolton.
All three of the party’s candidates, Yasmin Qureshi, Phil Brickell and Kirith Entwistle gathered at the Greater Manchester Business School on Great Moor Street ahead of weeks of campaigning.
A range of speakers included Bolton Council leader Nick Peel, shadow cabinet member Lucy Powell and Bromley Cross based businesswoman and former Conservative voter Allison Angel.
Ms Angel said: “I just always thought that they were the party of working people who were aspirational.
“But that all changed when I was left out of all support during the pandemic.”
She added: “We were excluded and there were around three and a half million of us around the country, small businesspeople, limited company directors.
“In that moment of need, the Conservatives were not there for us.”
All three candidates and their opponents will face weeks of campaigning with two of Bolton’s seats set to be amongst the mostly closely watched and hard fought in the country.
Yasmin Qureshi, now of Bolton South East were she won by nearly 8,000 votes at the last election, will be standing for the redrawn constituency of Bolton South and Walkden.
She said that in her time in parliament over recent years she had seen food and fuel costs along with rents all rise, while housebuilding lagged behind.
Addressing activists, Ms Qureshi said: “It’s you who are the foot soldiers, all of you are going to make sure we get elected.”
She will be up against Conservative Mohammed Afzal, Liberal Democrat Gemma-Jane Bowker, Reform UK’s Julie Pattison, Philip Kochitty for the Greens, and Jack Khan of the Workers Party.
Labour will also be aiming to take Bolton North East, where Conservative Mark Logan won by just 378 votes in 2019.
Mr Logan will be going up against Labour’s Kirith Entwistle, who told the audience that the election was a choice between “stability and chaos.”
She said she aimed to ensure that “northern towns like Bolton are not forgotten.”
Also standing in Bolton North East will be Rebecca Forest of the Liberal Democrats and Trevor Jones of Reform UK.
Conservative Chris Green will be defending a much larger majority of nearly 9,000 votes and will be up against Labour’s Phil Brickell.
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Mr Brickell told the audience that he had been born in Bolton and had gone to school in the town, telling them that he would campaign for a “fairer, greener Britain.”
Mr Brickell said: “We owe it to our loved ones, to our friends and to future generations.”
Also standing in Bolton West will be Donald McIntosh of the Liberal Democrats, Vicki Attenborough of the Green Party and Reform UK’s Dylan Evans.
The general election will be held on July 4.
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