Writing on the Times Red Box site (£), Manchester Gorton’s brilliant Lib Dem candidate Jackie Pearcey has said that only the Lib Dems can offer national opposition to a hard brexit and take on a Labour Party which takes people for granted.

She outlines some of the ways that they have done so in Gorton – in a city where they have all but one councillor:

Residents here are also tired of being ignored by the Labour-run council, which has become a de facto one-party state. This constituency is full of proud communities, passionate about improving their area. I was proud to serve as a councillor here for 21 years, fighting hard with local people to protect green spaces and improve services.

Years of neglect by the council have taken their toll. Many of the roads now have more craters than a lunar landscape. A deeply unpopular decision to reduce bin sizes has led to an epidemic of fly-tipping. Small business owners are struggling with soaring rents. These are the symptoms of a Labour party that takes voters for granted and is more interested in spending cash on glitzy developments in the city centre than investing in the neglected suburbs.

A Labour win would let them off the hook, she says:

Labour desperately wants to win in Manchester Gorton because it would mean no change is needed. They could continue to ignore the concerns of many traditional Labour voters in their northern heartlands and wave through the Conservative government’s hard Brexit plans.

She outlines what she and the Lib Dems offer on Brexit.

The good news is that it’s not too late to stop a hard Brexit. The Liberal Democrats are campaigning hard to defend Britain’s membership of the single market and ensure that the British people are given the final say on the terms of the Brexit deal.

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