The sacked librarian hoping to upset Labour in Wigan
manchestereveningnews.co.ukShe's an independent election candidate vying to upset the odds in the safe Labour seat of Wigan and dislodge one of Sir Keir Starmer’s brightest front-bench stars - Lisa Nandy.
It’s a daunting task facing Maureen O’Bern, but one she says she is unfazed by ahead of the July 4 General Election. Sacked as a librarian in Leigh by Wigan council in 2021, the married 61-year-old is one of 10 independent councillors on an authority which has only one Conservative member.
She failed to win an unfair dismissal case but was elected to sit on the council which fired her a year ago and will sit as councillor for Ince ward until 2027.
It was her criticism of the design of the ‘all glass and metal’ Galleries regeneration project in the town centre - against Wigan council’s employment policy - and its decision to allow a Chinese company to invest in the project which led bosses to letting her go. “I might have been legally wrong,” said the councillor. “But I believe I was morally right.” READ MORE: Woman, 29, dies after running away from Tesco while on 'accompanied leave' from hospital Wigan born and the daughter of a miner, Coun O’Bern’s family were staunchly Labour, but she fell out with the party then led by Tony Blair in 1997 because of the Iraq War. “I haven’t voted Labour since 1997 because of that,” she said. “I think it caused a lot of problems and I became very disillusioned with them. “I felt they no longer represented ordinary people who have to go out to work every day.” She admits that to some people she is regarded as a ‘controversial figure’. “But I don’t think my views are particularly controversial among ordinary, everyday people,” she said.
Read more on manchestereveningnews.co.uk