Think-tank director selected as Labour's candidate for Makerfield in upcoming general election
The Labour Party has announced its candidate to stand in Makerfield in the general election.
Josh Simons will be bidding to hold the seat – considered to be one of the safest in the country – on July 4.
It follows incumbent Yvonne Fovargue announcing that she would not be standing in the seat she first won in 2010.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr Simons said: “I am honoured to be selected as Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Makerfield.
“@Y_FovargueMP has served this great community with diligence and care. It would be a privilege to follow in her footsteps.
“We are at a pivotal moment. People in Makerfield have been let down by 14 years of Tory failure. Soon they will have the opportunity to vote for change – @UKLabour led by @Keir_Starmer that will deliver for working people. It’s time to end the Tory chaos, turn the page and rebuild Britain.”
Mr Simons is the director of political think-tank Labour Together which was founded by a group of MPs to offer “bold ideas for Britain under a Labour government".
He graduated top of his year in social and political sciences at Cambridge University and was a graduate fellow at Harvard University.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he has worked as a policy advisor for the Labour Party, founder and board trustee of the Civic Power Fund and was a visiting research scientist at Facebook AI.
But he sparked outrage earlier this year during a discussion on LBC about Conservative plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, when he suggested sending people-smuggling gangs on a barge to Scotland. He later apologised for his comments.