TRADE UNIONIST AND SOCIALIST COALITION (TUSC) NEWS RELEASE
15 February 2016
ROGER BANNISTER FOR LIVERPOOL’S MAYOR
TUSC (Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition) is delighted to announce that Roger Bannister will be their candidate in the election for Liverpool’s mayor.
Roger lives in Kirkdale and works in Knowsley where he is branch secretary for local government trade union Unison. He is also a member of Unison’s national executive council,
Roger has stood for TUSC in the Kirkdale ward consistently campaigning against all austerity and for a radical socialist no cuts alternative.
On being unanimously endorsed as candidate Roger declared:
I am delighted to stand for mayor of Liverpool on behalf of TUSC to provide a real alternative. The current mayor and his Tory chums offer us nothing more than endless austerity. I believe we should be standing up to the Tories, fighting to defend public services and the people who rely on them and those who work in them. In this regard I pledge my full support for the junior doctors currently defending their hard-won pay and conditions from this bullying and brutal government.
Roger is demanding fair funding for Liverpool’s public services. Roger said:
The Tories have just found £300million to defray the cuts in the Tory shires. What an example of the north-south divide, where’s our £300million? If the current mayor had fought the Tories instead of giving their leading representatives the freedom of our city, then maybe Liverpool would be shaking the Tory tree now too! My campaign for mayor will be demanding the Tories return the £millions they have stolen from our city’s funding, starting with £300million to match what they’ve given their mates, and demanding we organise a massive fightback to defeat the Tory cuts.
Roger added:
The trade union of which I am proud to be a member and a leading elected representative, has recently adopted a position in favour of councils setting no-cuts budgets, using all financial powers available to defend council-provided services and building a massive fight back against Tory-led austerity. That position will be my central policy going into this election. I challenge Mayor Anderson, and other candidates also standing for parties who claim to be on the side of the trade unions: will they adopt the no-cuts policy of my trade union or will they adopt the pro-austerity policies of the Tories etc?
Roger will build on the near 5,000 votes received by TUSC candidate Tony Mulhearn in the last mayoral election.
Roger can be contacted on 07954 376 096
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For further information contact
Daren Ireland on 07787128498 – Dave Walsh on 07969511796 – Tony Mulhearn on 07939098455
email: Merseysidetusc@gmail.com