Keir Starmer endorses Labour's by-election candidate with parting shot at Owen Paterson
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has endorsed his party's choice of candidate for the upcoming North Shropshire by-election.
On Sunday Ben Wood was selected as the North Shropshire Constituency Labour Party's candidate for next month's contest, in which voters will go to the polls to select a replacement for former Conservative MP Owen Paterson.
The 26-year-old has now been congratulated by Sir Keir, who has also fired a parting shot at the former MP.
"The people of North Shropshire deserve an MP who will work to improve their lives and their communities, not line their own pockets," he wrote on Twitter.
"Ben will stand against corruption, and stand up for North Shropshire."
Mr Paterson, who was the area's since 1997, resigned earlier this month after a lobbying scandal.
In October, Kathryn Stone, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, recommended the former Tory minister should be suspended from Parliament for 30 days after an investigation found he repeatedly lobbied ministers and officials on behalf of two companies for which he was acting as a paid consultant - Randox, and Lynn's Country Foods.
Following his selection as the Labour candidate, Mr Wood said the by-election was "caused by Tory sleaze and the Prime Minister’s refusal to deal with corruption".
He added: “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."
The Conservatives also chose their election candidate over the weekend.
Birmingham-based barrister Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst will represent the party after being the "comfortable winner" of the North Shropshire Conservative Association vote.
Dr Shastri-Hurst, 38, said he was intent on showing the people of North Shropshire that he is "the best candidate to represent them", adding: "Alongside a commitment to public service, I have integrity, loyalty and respect for others which I will demonstrate to communities throughout North Shropshire during the campaign."
The announcements of Mr Wood and Dr Shastri-Hurst mean there four candidates have now been publicly named.
Reform UK's Kirsty Walmsley launched her campaign in Oswestry last week, saying local people deserved an independent champion.
Meanwhile Monaco-based Russell Dean, a consultant for a yacht broker who grew up in Shropshire, is representing The Party Party.
The Liberal Democrats are yet to announced a candidate, while the Green Party will confirm its representative on Thursday after a hustings.
