Macclesfield: Reform UK candidate attacks Labour and Conservatives on localness and whips
By Alex Greensmith
2nd Jul 2024 | General Election 2024
Macclesfield's Reform UK candidate has derided the two best-performing political parties at the last general election in Macclesfield.
Stephen Broadhurst is Reform UK's first-ever Macclesfield candidate, he spoke on how Conservative cuts personally affected him, and questioned the Labour candidate's connections outside of Macclesfield.
Mr Broadhurst was speaking at the second hustings in Macclesfield, which took place last night at St. Michael's Church on Market Place.
"It sounds a bit of a cliche, but I want to make a difference in actually where I live," he said.
"On a local level, I am not a whipped politician, I am not a career politician, I want to do what is right for the people of Macclesfield.
"Your issues are my issues. I actually live here, and if I lose I will live here, and if I win I will live here.
"I don't pretend, I didn't stand as a councillor in another county, or another area in London.
"And that person is still a councillor to this day in that area.
"So there is no loyalty or allegiance to Cheshire."
While not explicitly mentioned in that exchange, the 'councillor to this day in that area' likely refers to Tim Roca, the Labour candidate, who is currently an active Westminster City Councillor.
In May 2024, Mr Roca told Macclesfield Nub News that he was submitting his resignation at Westminster City Council, for which he was also leader of until January 2024.
Mr Roca is not the only Westminster City Councillor standing in Cheshire to try and become a Labour MP, as Ryan Jude, also a Westminster City Councillor, is standing in Macclesfield's neighbouring constituency of Tatton.
During the hustings, both Mr Roca and Mr Broadhurst made mention of their 'localness', as it were, with Tim referencing his school days in Poynton and Mr Broadhurst revealing that he was christened in the very same venue as the hustings.
It should be noted that Mr Broadhurst has not disclosed his address to the public, but the address is within the Macclesfield constituency. (The Reform candidate was one of just two candidates to withhold their address, along with Christopher Wellavize.)
Whereas Mr Roca, did put down a Tytherington-Bollinbrook address on the publicly-available document 'STATMENT OF PERSONS NOMINATED', which you can view on the Cheshire East Council website.
Mr Roca previously told Macclesfield Nub News: "I live here, I have been living here for some time, and I will be living here full-time if I become the MP. I go down to Westminster for work of course, but this is where I am based, this is where my family are, this is where I live."
It should also be noted that Mr Broadhurst - a former councillor for Hurdsfield - has once stood for parliament outside the Macclesfield constituency before. He who stood in Denton and Reddish in the 2010 general election finishing third. However, Macclesfield Nub News is unable to state where Stephen lived at that time.
Also at Monday's hustings, Mr Broadhurst would also slam Conservative David Rutley's friend and colleague Lord Cameron - who came to Macclesfield on the campaign trail - for a decision he made when he was prime minister.
"I grew up in Macclesfield, was schooled in Macclesfield, I've loved and lost across Cheshire," he said.
"I started work at British Aerospace [in Woodford] when I was 16 years old as an apprentice. I stayed there until my early 30s, when Mr Rutley's boss David Cameron shut the place, and 4500 jobs were lost."
At the end of the hustings, answering to a question on restoring trust in politicians, Mr Broadhurst would go on to add: "I'm not a career politician. Mr Roca is a career politician."
"Mr Rutley is a whipped politician. He'll say yes, when everybody wants him to say no.
"I am not whipped, I am not a career politician, I am a businessman.
"At the end of the day, my mum and dad used to say 'It doesn't matter who you vote for Stephen, they do nothing for us', because they have not got their interests at heart. I have.
"We [at Reform UK] call our policies a contract. We don't call it a manifesto, because manifesto means lies.
"Once people get in, they change their mind and they do different things. I don't. If I say no, I mean no. I'm honest, I'm credible, I'm not told what to do.
"Constituency first, country second, party last. That is my mantra. I haven't heard any other people say that."
It wasn't just the two best-performing political parties that the Reform candidate had negative words for.
Mr Broadhurst, who is a former Liberal Democrat, also admitted that he 'can't really get his head around [Sir] Ed Davey'. Neil Christian is running for the Liberal Democrats in Macclesfield this time around.
Macclesfield has returned a Conservative MP at every election in 100 years, but with Labour leading and Reform UK performing within the top three in many polls - including Nub News' own - both Reform UK and Labour parties hope to upset the apple cart and change Macclesfield's MP to red (or a different shade of blue) for the first time.
Macclesfield voters will go to the polling station for the general election on Thursday, July 4 from 7am to 10pm.
A record seven candidates will be on the ballot paper.
In alphabetical order, the candidates are: Stephen Broadhurst (Reform UK), Dickie Fletcher (Social Democratic Party), Neil Christian (Liberal Democrats), Amanda Iremonger (Green Party), Tim Roca (Labour Party), David Rutley (Conservatives), Christopher Wellavize (Independent).
A full list of polling stations can be found HERE. To find more general election news in Macclesfield, please click HERE.
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