Deputy chairman of English Democrats to stand in Batley and Spen

Thérèse Hirst finished second to Tracy Brabin in the 2016 Batley and Spen by-election - when several parties opted not to stand as a mark of respect for murdered MP Jo Cox - and hopes to take the seat from Labour this time around.

Ms Hirst, who was born in Bradford and still lives in the city, has family in the constituency. She worked in Kirklees as a teacher of religious education before later going on to study and practise law, so she feels as though she understands the problems that are facing the community, especially now since the coronavirus pandemic which has hit communities really hard.

She said she is passionate about bringing jobs to the area and raising the living standards of those who have been left behind, not just by Labour, but by the Tories, who, after all the rhetoric in recent years, have failed to keep to their promises about levelling up the North.

Ms Hirst said she would give a voice to the people of England, scrap the unfair Barnett Formula which sees every person in England having £2,000 less spent on them as do the Scots, and hold the Government accountable over its promises to give the SNP billions of extra pounds in infrastructure spending and use of much-needed NHS England services, in a bid to quell the growing calls for Scottish Independence.

“Labour no longer represents ordinary working-class people and has abandoned us to woke extreme-Left ideology and has a deep loathing for England and the English," she said.

"And the recent announcements by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove regarding billions of extra infrastructure spending and the use of our NHS England hospitals - where seven million people are already waiting two years or more for non-urgent elective surgery – is completely unconscionable.

"Scotland has already received £18b from the Treasury for the Covid-19 crisis, has its own responsibility for health and other devolved matters, and meanwhile areas in the North are still waiting for the electrification of the trans-Pennine railway and more than 5,000 constituents live in the most deprived areas in England and has half of adults languishing on universal credit and unemployment benefits.”