By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk
Update: Saddleworth News reports that Labour will be choosing the candidate for the by-election this Sunday.
We don’t yet have a date for the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, but already potential candidates are making themselves known. Labour are hot favourites for the seat, but who will our candidate be? We’ve spent the last twenty four hours examining some of the definite (and potential) candidates for selection. This isn’t an exhaustive list though, we expect that there are other candidates in the running. If you know someone else who is standing email us.
Here are the candidates we’re aware of so far (in alphabetical order). Who would you choose?
Mike Amesbury
Currently mike is a full-time Manchester councillor (he’s the Executive Member for Culture and Leisure) as well as being a North West rep on Labour’s National Policy Forum and is active in anti-cuts campaigns. Whilst many have tipped him as a future leader of Manchester council, this isn’t on the cards in the short term.
He supported David Miliband in the leadership race and spoke on his behalf at Manchester Gorton’s nomination meeting.
Update: Mike has now announced that he won’t be seeking the nomination in Oldham East. That’s something of a surprise as Mike was thought to be one of the front-runners.
Mohammed Azam
Mohammed Azam is a former member of Labour’s NEC. He’s also a former Oldham Councillor and a Unite/TGWU convenor. Mohammed has been a party member for over 20 years and is the Co-Chair of National Assembly Against Racism and active in Unite Against Fascism.
Steve Carter
Steve was elected as a councillor in Macclesfield in 1998 and led the Labour Group on Macclesfield Council until 2006. He stood as candidate in two general elections in 2001 and 2005. His political interests include Europe, housing, education and regeneration.
Steve is a member of the Cooperative Party and of the NUT and GMB trade Unions, was an MEP candidate in the North West in 2009, and supported David Miliband’s leadership campaign.
Ann Courtney
Ann joined the party in the autumn of 2008, became CLP secretary at her first meeting and hasn’t looked back, helping in Jim Dobbin’s re-election campaign in Heywood & Middleton and standing as a candidate for Norden Ward on Rochdale Council – nearly trebling the Labour vote. She ran Andy Burnham’s HQ for his leadership campaign and recently spent two weeks working full-time at the campaign HQ in Oldham East.
Howard Dawber
Howard is known to be well connected (sharing a stage at the London reception of annual conference with Ed Miliband, Harriet Harman and Ken Livingstone this year) and currently works as the Strategic Advisor at Canary Wharf Group. He is a former Chair of the Young Fabians and of the Young Co-op Network.
Paul Foster
Ben Hayhurst
North West born Ben is currently the agent to shadow energy and climate change secretary Meg Hillier in Hackney South, where he was a council candidate in May. He could be one to watch for the future if he’s unsuccessful this time.
Ismail Ibrahim
Afzal Khan
He has a reputation as a formidable campaigner, campaigning and fundraising across the region, and helped Manchester Labour regain seats after heavy losses due to the Iraq War. A leaked document by Manchester Lib Dems acknowledged they hadn’t been able to counter the effect of his involvement.
Khan is an active member of GMB and Unite; has also run campaigns with Unison and Usdaw, particularly on anti-racism work, and was awarded a CBE in 2008 for services to community and interfaith relations and to local government.
Married with 3 children, including Maryam, who was PPC for Bury North at this year’s general election. Maryam was rumoured to be a potential candidate back in November, but has thrown her full support behind her father’s bid.
Josh MacAlister
A former student activist (he was President of Edinburgh Students’ Union and chair of the Aldwych group of unions), MacAlister is now a teacher in an Oldham school, teaching citizenship. His local roots are strong – his family are based in Oldham – and regardless of whether he can make it through such a tough field of candidates, he’s certainly one to watch for the future.
Nigel Newton
Nigel Newton is Managing Director of a successful local business in Oldham and backer of local Living Wage campaign, as well as being a long-standing local party member.
Lucy Powell
Peter Wheeler
Peter is a stalwart of Labour campaigns and fundraising events and is unmissable at every regional conference, leadership hustings and social with his stack of ‘Don’t blame me, I voted Labour’ badges and bumper stickers for sale. He is known for providing conference-goers with guides to the best events, restaurants and pubs.
Wheeler supported Andy Burnham in the leadership campaign and spoke on his behalf at hustings, and married earlier this year with most of the North West Labour Party in attendance.
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