Labour’s deputy leader said nothing less than 100% will be accepted of its candidates in their approach to serving communities as Liverpool gets ready to go to the polls.
The starting gun on this year’s local elections has been fired as Liverpool Labour set out its manifesto for the city-wide poll in a little more than six weeks time. Angela Rayner MP, deputy leader of the Labour Party, joined activists and candidates at the Big Hope Project in Kensington for the launch.
Speaking to the ECHO, Ms Rayner said the people of Liverpool “deserve the best.” She said: “They've been through a lot, 13 years of austerity, billions of pounds taken out of the north, Liverpool has had its services decimated.
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Knowing what Liam (Robinson, group leader) stands for, knowing the work that they've done, we've been watching them and overseeing some of the work locally to ensure that we have the very best candidates and the very best chance and I'm very comfortable with that.
“We've seen the progress that's been done through Liam's leadership and I've got confidence as the deputy leader of the Labour Party in the candidates we’re putting forward.” Ms Rayner, who has been MP for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015, said the group’s manifesto was “meaty in detail” about how they would deliver on the city’s priorities.
She added: “People get so frustrated with politics, when they hear people say, ‘oh we're going to do this, we're going to do that’ and then they feel like nothing gets better for them. I think that's one of the dangers that we've seen in politics over the recent decades is people don't see how it changes their lives.
“I've seen in 13 years under the Conservatives people in Liverpool have got poorer, yet the people here deserve those opportunities and can have those opportunities going forward.” Ms Rayner, who was elected deputy leader to Sir Keir Starmer in 2020, said this meant “local government being the best it can be here.”
She said: We make no apology for making sure we’ve tightened up our due diligence in the party to get the best candidates we can get, because we want to put the people in Liverpool in the best position for the next Labour government.” Despite this, Ms Rayner had a warning for those hoping to become councillors.
She said: “We will not accept anything but 100% and diligence towards being a public servant, to represent the people that have put their faith in you, and anything less than that will not be tolerated in the Labour Party under myself and Keir. It’s crucial for us that Liam's plan does work for the people of Liverpool and that's why me and Keir have been absolutely unapologetic that we want the best candidates.
“We're confident at these local elections that we can deliver that.”
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