LABOUR’S Shadow Chancellor visited Little Lever on Saturday where she met with local Labour candidate James Entwistle.

Anneliese Dodds spoke with residents and helped James deliver leaflets ahead of Thursday's elections.

She said: “It’s so important for people who really want to see positive change, to vote Labour on May 6, because unless we get Labour back in charge in Bolton, we are going to see more cuts under the Conservative and UKIP coalition. They aren’t backing local services and aren’t making our streets safer.”

Borough Labour leader Cllr Nick Peel added: “Northern towns like Bolton are beginning to wake up to the fact that the Tory promise of ‘levelling up’ is nothing more than an empty promise.

“As our future Chancellor, Anneliese will be at the forefront of bringing real investment into the North, under a Labour Government and working with a Labour Council.”

But Tory council leader Cllr David Greenhalgh said: “We’ve attracted £75m of extra government grant funding in this last year to regenerate our high streets, invest in our library and market and build new secondary schools.

“Hardly ‘empty promises’. As far as cuts, whichever party had been in control, they would have had to deliver the same amount of of cuts; and a bit rich as £10m of those cuts were deferred by the last Labour administration to this year.

“Plus Labour did not present any alternative to our budget, not a single amendment or proposal. The first time a major opposition has been unable to put forward any viable alternative."