Could Patrick Vernon be Manchester Central’s first BME MP?
Patrick Vernon is one of the four shortlisted Labour candidates selected to vie for the Manchester Central parliamentary election.
Following Manchester Central MP Tony Lloyd’s decision to stand as the Labour candidate for the upcoming Police and Crime Commissioner post, a by-election in the constituency is expected to take place later this year.
Last week, the Labour party went through its selection process to announce the shortlist. Mr. Vernon is one the four who will now face the next selection scheduled for 16th April 2012. The other candidates are Rosa Battle, Mike Amesbury and Lucy Powell.
Reacting to Mr. Vernon’s selection, Simon Woolley, Director of Operation Black Vote (OBV) said: “This is great news! Patrick Vernon has shown himself to be a man of the people. He truly cares about social and racial justice, and in a multicultural dynamic city such as Manchester all these qualities should go down very well.”
Mr. Woolley is absolutely right. Mr. Vernon is a person who is very sensitive to issues affecting all members of the society, especially the weak and the less fortunate.
He is a down to earth person, a quality that enables him to easily mingle with ordinary people, learn from their experiences and work together with them in finding solutions to problems affecting them.
Should Mr. Vernon succeed in winning the ticket (I strongly hope he does) and finally becoming an MP, he’ll be one of the very Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) leaders who never shies away from addressing racial discrimination and social injustice.
Written by Stephen Ogongo Ongong’a