Labour has selected its candidate to fight for the Bolton North East seat at the next general election.

Following a hustings and vote of local Labour Party members today, Sunday, Kirith Entwistle won a majority of votes cast.

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The other candidates who were in contest for the seat were the mayor of Bolton, Cllr Akhtar Zaman, and council shadow cabinet spokesperson for stronger communities, Cllr Rabiya Jiva.

Ms Entwistle will go up against Conservative MP Mark Logan in the next general election, who has held the seat since December 2019.

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She said: “It is such an honour to have been selected as the parliamentary candidate for Bolton North East.

“Bolton deserves better than this government, after 13 years of the Tories, nothing in this country seems to work anymore.

“The Tories have broken Britain – and they are too distracted by chaos of their own making to fix it.

“We are five Tory prime ministers on and what has our country got to show for it, food prices and energy costs spiralling out of control, longer hospital waiting lists and crime through the roof.”

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Mr Logan was elected by a margin of less than 500 votes back in 2019 and Labour officials say a process is in place to ensure high calibre candidates.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Kirith lives in Bolton North East, works in Bolton and is raising her family here.

“Kirith will be an outstanding local member of parliament, championing Bolton's voice in Westminster.”