The Respect Party will contest the Manchester Central by-election on 15 November. The party has selected Catherine Higgins, a 40 year old mother of 6 children who lives and works in Manchester. Catherine’s platform is to ask the people of Manchester to speak up rather than being a ladder for the political establishment only interested in the ‘Westminster bubble’.
Catherine is of Sierra Leonean descent and has lived in the UK for over twenty years. She is a local community advocate and political campaigner in Manchester with a strong record of helping with benefit, housing and immigration issues. She has consistently worked in the voluntary third sector and has a passion for helping improve facilities for working class areas.
She intends to stand for election on a platform of opposition to the growing inequality and degradation of our communities.
- More social housing built rather than student residences and supermarkets.
- Free school meals and more school places with more teachers employed.
- A major programme of creating community facilities starting with youth centres.
- Abolish tuition fees.
- Restore Education Maintenance Allowance.
- Bring the troops home from Afghanistan.
In accepting the party’s selection, Catherine explained, ‘the Human spirit is being drained as Job centre Plus has sub-contracted job seeking to private companies...who really do not show due care to their customers, hence leaving unemployed people treated like second class citizens. I have slowly watched my neighbours, friends and families lives deteriorate due to the economic climate.
‘I put myself forward because I have a great yearning for real change, not one that is scripted, dictated then abandoned but one that is practiced. George Galloway’s stunning election victory in March is a model for an election campaign that can bring real change. It is time for the same in Manchester.’