AS voters across the country head to the polls to vote for their next MP, voters in Liscard will also be choosing a new councillor.

A by-election has been called in the ward after a vacancy was opened as Labour councillor Daisy Kenny stepped down from the role. Cllr Kenny had previously been on maternity leave.

At the end of May, a notice was issued on Wirral Council’s website announcing that the election would take place at the same time as the General Election on July 4.  Six candidates were also announced on June 7.

However news of the by-election was not announced on the local authority’s social media until June 28, a week before the election, and it was mentioned briefly in an article on Wirral View, the council’s own news site, on June 19.

In a statement posted on Facebook earlier this month, Cllr Kenny said: “I have made the difficult decision to step down as a Labour Councillor for Liscard & Egremont.

“I want to thank all of the members and residents who supported my election campaign that hot summer of 2021. I was 28 when I was elected and it has been a dream come true to represent the area that I went to primary and secondary school. Thank you for allowing me to do so.”

The ward is considered a safe Labour seat which re-elected three Labour councillors at the last council elections in 2023. The candidate Labour have put forward is Graeme Cooper who previously ran as a candidate in Wallasey ward and the party is understood to have been campaigning in the ward.

One Wallasey constituency candidate in the upcoming general election, Philip Anthony Bimpson for the Workers Party, is also running.

The following candidates are running:

Philip Anthony Bimpson (Workers Party)

Graeme William Cooper (Labour)

Stephen Dobson (Local Conservatives)

Kieran Folkard (Freedom Alliance – Real People, Real Alternative)

Chase Scott Frederick Newton (Liberal Democrat)

Oliver Williams Reeves (Green Party)