15/01/2008
Greater Manchester Respect Renewal have selected their first prospective candidate for the 2008 local elections this May. Dr Kay Phillips was chosen on a unanimous vote to contest the Cheetham ward in North Manchester. Respect supporters are now gearing up for an election battle that will see Kay pitched against Martin Pagel the deputy leader of the New Labour City Council.

“I am delighted to have been selected as Respect’s prospective candidate,” said Kay. “I believe that we have been let down by the Labour government due to their pursuit of conservative policies. “Whilst our children have become more pressured and stressed, schools are forced to focus on targets and testing. Leisure and sports facilities for children and young people are woefully inadequate.

“Whilst our housing is more expensive and overcrowded, privatisation and speculative building has meant expensive new flats in our city centre lie empty. Social housing is less available and waiting lists are longer.

The Respect campaign will focus, among other things on the lack of safe play spaces for local children and teenagers in north Manchester. Also, as a NHS GP, Kay will be raising concerns about the state of the NHS. She will use her platform to demand the reinstatement of sacked mental health nurse, Karen Reissmann.

George Galloway MP backed the campaign saying, "Dr Kay Phillips has been a campaigning force in Manchester for over twenty years - from the fight to save Booth Hall Children's Hospital to the marches for peace in more recent times. Cheetham Hill, like my own constituency in Bethnal Green, has a wonderful history of solidarity between its people - a celebration of our multi-cultural society. Kay Phillips stands firmly and proudly in that tradition of human solidarity and I urge you all to join her campaign for the May local elections.”

The local Respect Renewal branch is planning a series of events, forum and meetings in the coming months – including meetings with George Galloway in February and Ken Loach in March. We will also be selecting other candidates for the local elections.