Double Lib Dem selection news: Parliamentary by-election and London Mayor

Gloria Adebo has been selected by the Liberal Democrats for the Rutherglen and Hamilton West Parliamentary by-election.

Originally from Nigeria, she stood as a council candidate for Rutherglen Central and North in 2022 and works as a data analyst with a major financial institution:

On being selected, Gloria Adebo said:

I am passionate about giving people right across Rutherglen and Hamilton West the representation they deserve.

For me, putting public service back into the beating heart of our politics is so important, and that is why I am standing as a candidate in this by-election.

The Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election is a real chance for local people to deliver a judgement on the difficulties and disasters we have been landed in by incompetent, populist governments in London and Edinburgh.

It needn’t be like this. And it is the Liberal Democrats who, increasingly, are a growing and dynamic part of an alternative way forward– offering hope in place of despair, founded on a belief in individuals, in the rule of law, in equality of opportunity and the importance of human rights here and across the world.

In this by-election, I will be focussed on the issues that matter to local people. That means bringing down bills for households struggling with the cost of living and ensuring that people can access healthcare close to home and within a reasonable time.

It is time, in particular, for the government to accept Liberal Democrat demands to support people in difficulty with their mortgages, paid for by reversing Conservative tax cuts for banks, to protect families falling into arrears or facing repossession as a result of soaring interest rates.

You can follow her on Twitter here.

Meanwhile in London, Charles Kennedy’s Director of Research during the Iraq War, Rob Blackie, has been selected as the party’s candidate for Mayor of London.

As the Evening Standard reports:

A prominent campaigner against Russian propaganda was on Friday selected as the Liberal Democrats’ London mayoral candidate.

Rob Blackie said he will put plans to cut the capital’s crime rate at the heart of his battle against Labour’s Sadiq Khan.

The Met must improve conviction rates for rape and serious sexual offences instead of focusing resources on “trivial crimes” such as possession of cannabis or laughing gas, he said.

“Sadiq Khan has failed to tackle rape and other serious crimes over the last seven years and Labour are committed to the worst possible priorities for the police – arresting people for laughing gas rather than spending time on serious crimes,” he said.

“The Conservatives are discredited nationally by their cost of living failures and in London they’ve all but given up.”

You can follow him on Twitter here.

See all the Liberal Democrat PPCs selected and publicly announced so far here.

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