North Shropshire by-election: Labour chooses Oswestry man as candidate

Ben Wood has been selected as the North Shropshire Constituency Labour Party's candidate to contest the parliamentary seat in the by-election, set to take place on December 16.

He said the by-election was a chance to rid North Shropshire of "Tory sleaze".

The news comes after Owen Paterson resigned as the MP for the area following a lobbying scandal. He had served the seat since 1997.

Mr Wood, 26, said he is "Oswestry-born and-bred" and wants to "bring back a sense of decency" into local politics.

He was selected by Labour party members in the constituency at a meeting on Sunday.

He said: “Being Oswestry born-and-bred, I’ve had enough of people taking North Shropshire for granted.

“I went to Woodside Primary School, Marches Secondary School and started working life in a local hardware shop. I was born at the maternity unit in the Orthopaedic, shut down by the Tory government.

“The closure of local ambulance stations was the last straw, so I’ve put my name forward to fight for our towns and villages.

“I’ll be putting forward a new plan with fresh ideas to give our area a brighter future, but I also want to bring a sense of decency back to our politics.

“North Shropshire needs a voice at Westminster who will always work for them. This is a two-horse race between Labour and the Tories – and I’m the only candidate who will stand up for our towns and villages at every opportunity.”

On the circumstances of the by-election being called, he said: “This by-election has been caused by Tory sleaze and the Prime Minister’s refusal to deal with corruption.

“Local people are quite rightly proud of where they live and they have been let down very badly. This by-election gives them the chance to scrub North Shropshire clean of Tory sleaze.

“We need an MP who will address the Conservatives’ failures in North Shropshire – on fighting crime, on tackling the cost of living crisis, on underfunding local services and on failing to address the climate emergency.

“Voters have a choice – between Labour’s positive offer for local people and Tory sleaze.”

In a tweet Mr Wood said he was "absolutely over the moon" to have been selected. Councillor Shaun Davies, leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, congratulated Ben on the selection.

He tweeted: "Congratulations Ben! Getting a proper Shropshire lad into parliament would be good for North Shropshire and wider Shropshire, and good for parliament."

Mr Wood previously campaigned for Dr Julia Buckley, who stood for Labour for the Shrewsbury & Atcham seat in 2019.