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General Election 2019: Meet the Cheadle candidates

Conservative Mary Robinson held the seat in the 2017 election but with only a slim 8.3% majority that the Liberal Democrat candidate will be looking to overturn come December.

Mary Robinson has held the seat since 2015, turning Cheadle blue for the first time since 2001 in the process.

Labour has never won here since the seat was created in 1950, and in 2017 Labour only managed a 19% cut of the vote.

Therefore the seat has always been a tussle between the Tories and Lib Dems. The former managing 44.6% of the vote, with Lib Dem candidate Mark Hunter gaining 36.3% at the last election.

Cheadle voted to remain in the 2016 EU Referendum with a 14.6% majority.

Only three candidates stood here last time but in 2015 seven candidates were on the electoral roll, after numerous Pro-Leave candidates stood.

Mary Robinson (Conservative)

Robinson will be looking for re-election this December however her frosty voting record and Lib Dem resurgence may deprive her of that next step along her finely tuned political career.

She voted against same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland in July 2019 as well as against investigation into the role of public and private actions in the Iraq War.

The MP has voted to bar EU Nationals already living in the UK a right to live here. In the Commons she has consistently voted to leave the EU. In a seat that voted to remain by some margin, a margin that may well have increased since 2016, it could well be a difficult re-election campaign for Mary Robinson.

She was one of many MPs who were investigated by the CPS over spending breaches in the 2015 election.

Twitter: @MaryRobinson01

Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat)

Tom Morrison has acted as a Councillor for Cheadle Hulme North and so the 2019 election will be his first time standing as an MP.

He is, as his party affiliation suggests, a pro-Remain candidate who has been endorsed by ‘Unite to Remain’. Which is an organisation orchestrating the ‘remain alliance’ to maximise the amount of Remain candidate who will form the new Parliament after the Christmas election. This has meant newly formed, Renew Party has stood aside to give the Lib Dems a clear run as a remain party in the seat.

He has emphasised the need for action on climate change, funding for the NHS and the repayment of debt interest from the Tories back to the NHS. He has also drawn light to the Gender Pay Gap, calling on companies to be more transparent with female and minority employees’ wages.

Twitter: @ThomasMorrison

Zahid Chauhan (Labour)

Prior to running in Cheadle for the first time, Dr Chauhan has been a councillor for Oldham’s Alexandra ward and a chair of Oldham West and Royton Labour Party since 2013. He is the Cabinet member for Adult Health and Social care in Oldham. Prior to this, Dr Chauhan was primarily a GP.

Notably, Dr Chauhan supports Labour’s promises to fund the NHS and has background in improving the NHS.

He was Chair on Oldham Council’s owned Social Care provider MioCare from 2015 to 2018, during which time the organisation came a leading provider of health and care, being rated as ‘Good’ by CQC, the independent regulator of health and social care, in every service.

This was done whilst also cutting £4million in four years under Conservative policy.

Twitter: @ChauhanZahid

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