JACK SARGEANT has been selected as the Labour candidate to fight the Assembly by-election caused by the death of his father Carl in November.
Mr Sargeant, who is 23, was named as Labour candidate on January 3 at a hustings event in Connah’s Quay.
Following his selection, Jack Sargeant said he was ‘humbled and honoured’ to have been selected as his party’s candidate.
He continued: “I will be standing on a platform of being a powerful voice for local people – in the proud tradition of my father. I will also be seeking justice for him – getting to the truth about the chain of events that led to his premature death.
“From tomorrow I will be out and about on the campaign trail right across the constituency – listening to local concerns about the economy, health and education. If elected, I promise to champion North Wales’ interests on all these issues.
“Whilst friends from the wider Labour family across Britain will be welcome to visit and campaign alongside us to secure victory, I want to emphasise – this will be a locally run campaign.”
Those words, while carefully chosen, are full of the potential to cause trouble both during the election campaign and afterwards.
It is usual for the party leader to support a by-election candidate by making at least a token appearance in a by-election. However, the circumstances leading to Carl Sargeant’s death have led to rancour within Alyn and Deeside and also within the national Labour movement, in which Carl Sargeant was a popular figure.
In addition, an inquiry into the circumstances of Carl Sargeant’s sacking as a minister in Carwyn Jones’ government has the potential to embarrass the First Minister while his former colleague’s son sits in the Senedd.
Jack Sargeant is practically nailed on to be the next AM for Alyn and Deeside. At the May 2016 Assembly elections, his father captured almost as many votes as the next three candidates combined.
UKIP, for whom current regional AM Michelle Brown fought the seat in 2016, are not fielding a candidate as a mark of respect.
Other parties’ candidates are Sarah Atherton (Cons); Carrie Harper (PC); Donna Lalek (LibDem); and Duncan Rees (Green).
Although elections and by-elections, by convention, have taken place on Thursdays, there is no statutory compulsion to do so. February 6 is the last date upon which the by-election could take place.
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