Labour candidate selected to succeed Hazel Blears in Salford and Eccles

Rebecca Long-Bailey has been selected to succeed Hazel Blears as the Labour candidate for Salford and Eccles. Long-Bailey inherits a Labour majority of 5,725 ahead of second-placed Lib Dems.

Long-Bailey has worked as a solicitor for the NHS for the past ten years and grew up in Manchester – her father worked as a Salford docker. She said:

“The people of Salford and Eccles are being let down by the Tories in Government. We’re facing a cost of living crisis. Food and utility bills are on the up, and in the north west people’s wages are buying less and less.”

“I was born to the roar of the Stretford End to Irish parents and grew up locally.”

“I grew up watching my dad worrying when round after round of redundancies were inflicted on the Docks.

“He was forced to witness his friends empty lockers into bin liners after decades of service, never sure when the axe was eventually going to fall on him.

“I watched my parents’ struggle with debt, never knowing from one week to the next whether they could keep their heads above water.

“This is what I grew up with just as these are the daily experiences ordinary Salfordians grow up with now.”

Long-Bailey was selected on an All-Women Shortlist (AWS) with the backing of Salford’s elected Mayor, Ian Stewart, and trade unions TSSA, ASLEF and Unite.