Bernie Sanders’ brother in bid for Cameron’s UK MP seat
UK-based Larry Sanders, 82, will represent the Green Party in the race for former British PM David Cameron’s seat.
The brother of Bernie Sanders, the former US presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, has announced that he will be running for a seat in the British parliament, vacated last week by former Prime Minister David Cameron.
Larry Sanders, 82, who moved to the UK in 1969, was selected to represent the Green Party in the October 20 by-election to replace Cameron as the MP for the Witney constituency in Oxfordshire.
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Cameron, who stepped down as prime minister in late June following his failed referendum campaign to convince UK voters to remain the European Union, announced his resignation from parliament earlier in September.
Congrats to @LarrySandersPPC, selected as @TheGreenParty candidate for #Witney. A fantastic local activist & advocate for truly public #NHS.
— Keith TaylorMEP 2010-19 (@GreenKeithMEP) September 22, 2016
“The major political parties are in disarray,” Sanders said in a statement on Friday.
“The policies of the last 30 years, shifting resources and power from the majority to the richest, culminated in the illegality and greed which crashed the economy in 2008,” he said, channelling a rhetoric his 75-year-old brother and senator of Vermont used throughout his presidential nomination bid.
“This is a rich, capable and decent country,” he said. “We can do better.”
‘More funding for social care’
Sanders will be fighting the by-election “on the promise to fight NHS [National Health Service] privatisation”, the Green Party said in a statement on Friday.
“He will also campaign for a fair proportional representation system so every vote counts, more funding for social care and to reverse housing policy so everyone can afford a decent home.”
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Larry Sanders, who previously served as a local councillor, is currently the Green Party’s health spokesman.
He been active in local politics in Britain for more than 15 years, also ran for a parliamentary seat in the 2015 general election for Oxford West and Abingdon, when he secured 4.4 percent of the vote, losing to his Conservative rival who got more than 45 percent.
The Witney constituency is also a stronghold for the ruling Conservative Party.
READ MORE: Britain’s Green Party surge
At the 2015 election, Cameron secured the Witney parliamentary seat by winning more than 60 percent of the vote, while the Green Party candidate only got 5 percent.
The Conservatives announced on Thursday that 37-year-old Robert Courts will be their candidate in the coming by-election for the Witney seat.
Courts, a barrister and local councillor on West Oxfordshire District Council, said he was “honoured” by his party’s decision.
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