The Social Democratic Party have announced their parliamentary candidate for the constituency of Macclesfield in the next general election.

Bollington resident Dickie Fletcher will be standing as the Social Democratic Party candidate for Macclesfield.

This is the first time that the Social Democratic Party have put forward a candidate in the Macclesfield constituency.

He now joins four other candidates who are vying to become Macclesfield's next MP.

Dickie's candidacy means Macclesfield will have five candidates in the running for Macclesfield's next MP since 2017.

Dickie is the owner of a small business in Manchester called Big Fish Rentals Ltd, serving the music industry with equipment hire and technical services.

Dickie is proud of his 30 years' experience in building and maintaining businesses.

He has run his own businesses since graduating from Manchester University with a Psychology degree in 1994.

He has lived in Bollington for a year having recently moved out of the city.

Dickie is one of 74 Social Democratic Party members the party has put forward across the country for the next UK general election.

"I am fortunate that it is now my home, hopefully for many years," he said.

"I have been politically engaged all my life, from a childhood growing up in Sheffield during the hothouse of the Miners' strike and the upheaval that Thatcherite policies brought to the North.

"I was also very influenced by my great uncle, Eric Fletcher, who was a Labour MP for 25 years following the war.

"The experience of trying to build and sustain businesses over the last 30 years, through the 2008 financial crisis, the covid lockdowns and myriad ups and downs in between, has sharpened my thoughts on how badly we have been led by politicians for so many years."

Dickie's uncle The Lord Fletcher was an MP from 1945 to 1970.

"I picked up the SDP's New Declaration last year and immediately found a political home where I could see there were like-minded people."

"Having seen William Clouston, the party leader, speak at the party conference last October, I was very impressed with his depth of thought and commitment to building a real party of change for the UK."

He feels honoured to be approved as the candidate for the SDP.

"We are a small party, without the bank roll or exposure of the larger parties," he said.

The Duke Street Community Centre, a polling centre in Macclesfield.

"So the main focus is helping get the party profile up, so that as many people as possible have the chance to check out our policies, and hopefully agree with enough of them to give us their vote."

Outside of politics, he is a keen cyclist and enjoys riding through the Cheshire edge of the Peak District, one of his favourite places to cycle.

He looks forward to learning about the concerns of Macclesfield's residents and the people living in the surrounding towns and villages.

"I am keen to focus on the failures of the economic model over the past 30 plus years, that all the main parties have followed," he added.

The party was founded in 1990.

"This is the root cause of all the problems from immigration, to lack of affordable housing and the decline of our industries.

"Importantly, we need to preserve our national democratic accountability to our citizens and reject the failed neo-liberal globalist project that has based growth on debt and cheap immigration, at the expense of our manufacturing and industrial base."

The general election will take place no later than the end of January 2025 and so far the Green Party (Amanda Iremonger), Conservatives (David Rutley MP), Labour (Tim Roca), and the Liberal Democrats (Neil Christian) have already announced their candidates.

The announcement of Dickie's candidacy now means many opinion polls are out of date, and do not take into account of the Social Democratic Party candidate.

Dickie's SDP candidacy makes him the only Bollington resident to be running in the 2024 General Election. However, Labour Bollingtonian Judy Snowball did get to the final four in vying to be selected as Labour's candidate, before losing to Tim Roca.

Macclesfield: Updates on Dickie's campaign can be found on social media.