Kevin Fitzpatrick

Yeah, he's been a councillor in Wigan for many, many years.

This has been one of those boroughs where it's been an absolute Labour stronghold, but there's always been some true blue, real traditional Conservative voices.

And he's been one of them in Wigan for many decades.

You mentioned, you know, the Brexit election when...

The Conservatives swept to victory across the north of England and they ended up getting all these MPs, suddenly eight MPs in Greater Manchester when they'd only ever really had them in the leafy areas of Cheshire and the more wealthy Altrincham.

We ended up with one in Leigh just up the road from this constituency.

But even then, the councillors, they didn't really have much impact on the council, the Conservatives, but Michael Winstanley, he's been there, so he'll know this constituency inside out,

He's not a fan of Andy Burnham, I can tell you that.

He's been critical publicly of him quite a lot over the years.

And I'm sure he'll be relishing this opportunity to take him and to take reform on.

Yeah, that's what I say.

He's a true blue conservative.

He's one of those who, you know, probably in his own community over the years, he's had to argue his case because there would have been so much resentment perhaps over the years to that particular Thatcherite view.

But yeah, he's stuck to his guns and he's here part of this huge by-election.

No, I think you've just used up all the information I have about him, basically.

But we're told by the party that he's a committed local campaigner.

And it's a place where the Greens haven't really had much of a presence over the years, despite the momentum that we would hope to have in the north of England following that by-election victory in Gorton and Denton.

They came 5th.

the last general election.

So behind the Liberal Democrats and quite a way behind the Conservatives reform and obviously Labour, who were thousands ahead of them.