'Knocking on doors it's quite striking... there's a really deep, profoundly depressing distrust of politics'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

He’s the academic high-flyer who walked out of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership team. Now, 30-year-old Josh Simons is vying to be the next MP for the Makerfield constituency on the outskirts of Wigan, following the decision by sitting MP Yvonne Fovarque not to defend the seat.

A graduate of Cambridge University with a first in politics, Mr Simons went away to study at Harvard in the US after falling out with the Corbyn regime.

Perceived as one of Sir Keir’s ‘Starmtroopers’ - the term used to describe candidates parachuted in by Labour to seats, sometimes against the wishes of local activists - Mr Simons is keen to dispel the impression he has no north west connections, in particular a ‘false rumour’ circulating on social media that he is from Kent. “I am absolutely not from Kent,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). “My only connection to Kent is that I have occasionally driven through it on the way to catch a ferry.” READ MORE: Urgent appeal for help to find missing teenager who didn't turn up for work His father is from the Prestwich and Whitefield area of Bury.

After returning from the US he and his wife made their home in Rawtenstall and later in Ramsbottom. Now married for five years, the couple have two children, one of which was born at the Royal Bolton Hospital.