Corbynista former MP chosen to contest key marginal at the snap election

Former MP Chris Williamson has been selected to fight the marginal seat he lost in 2015.

Williamson, who is an avowed Corbynista, has been selected for Derby North, which he lost by 41 votes two years ago.

He is twice former leader of Derby city council and also worked as a bricklayer. He was involved in the successful campaign to keep the Bombardier plant in Derby.

He said: “Jeremy Corbyn has given Labour back its true values and our fighting spirit. The party now has all the policies that I believe can win, from reinvestment in our economy to fair taxation.”

“This snap election campaign will be about showing voters in Derby North that I am not a conventional Westminster politician. I’m proud to be a Derby man and I’m proud to fight our corner against the country’s elites,” he added.

Williamson describes the Derby North seat as the most marginal in the country – he lost it by just 41 to his Tory rival Amanda Solloway in 2015. It was the second smallest majority of any seat won in the 2015 general election, beaten only by Gower, which the Tory MP Byron Davies holds with a 27 vote majority.

Referring to Corbyn’s Labour party, Williamson said: “Labour has a common sense policy agenda, it’s popular and it’s what this country desperately needs. But the Tory establishment refuse to engage with it and that has unfortunately been the case since going back to when the Labour Party first won free health care for this nation – they said it couldn’t be done, I’m out to show it can and it must.”

Williamson will launch his campaign tonight in Derby.

“Theresa May’s vision for our country after Brexit is to create a useless satellite state off the shores of Europe, a tax heaven for bankers and bureaucrats. Labour is the party that rebuilt this nation after the War, we gave this country national values like dignity at work and health care for all, and so I invite UKIP voters to come make Labour their home once again.”

“I ask voters to look around at what this country has become under the Tories and their cabinet of millionaires. Take a look at our value for the right to a home, under the Tories that right has never been so far away for so many. That’s why Labour is up for the fight, in Derby and in the nation.”