Don’t know who to vote for? Meet the parliamentary candidates vying for Wavertree and Riverside

For many of us, this is the first time we’ve ever paid this much attention to the General Election. With voting around the corner, it’s difficult to weigh up all the pros an cons of the local candidates.

So we’ve done it for you. We got in touch with every local candidate standing in Wavertree and Riverside, but only some got back to us.

Here’s #TeamWavertree photographed at a husting event last month.

Luciana Berger (Labour)

Luciana lives in Kenny but grew up in London during the Thatcher period, which she describes as “a nasty, spiteful, shameful period in our history”. She was born into a Jewish family and her previous positions include Shadow Minister for Public Health and Energy and Climate Change.

Key policies:

1. To protect what we’ve achieved – together, as a community – from the Tory devastation we know so well.

2. To build on those achievements – to bring more jobs and investment to the area, to get the council and the police to use the powers a Labour government gave them to sort anti-social behaviour which causes such misery.

3. To help the council provide the new housing we so desperately need.

Vote for them if:

• You’re a slave to the mainstream

• You feel inspired and motivated by Ed Milliband’s gurns

• You’re the most recent member of a generation of Labour voters in your family who were hit hard by the Maggy T government

Our prediction:

Labour reportedly have a 100 per cent chance of winning in Wavertree.This coincides with The Tab prediction of 38.8 per cent of students voting for Labour, making them the most popular party.

Leo Evans (Lib Dem)

Leo is a 20 year old Politics student studying at the University of Liverpool. He moved to Northern Ireland at the age of nine, before moving back to the North West in 2013.

During his sixthform years he was a key participate in debating competitions (you know the type), and he’s also a loyal LFC supporter. Leo re-founded the University’s Liberal Youth Society and frequently assists in local campaigns within the Wavertree constituency.

Key policies:

1. Stronger Economy. We aim to have the budget balanced by 2017/18, while also protecting the least well-off in society. We’ll increase the tax threshold to £12,500 and invest £8bn into the NHS.

2. Fairer Society. We’ll have fairer taxes and ensure equal rights for all. We also aim to create a fairer political system, introducing an STV system by 2020 and giving 16-17 year olds the right to vote

3. The core of our manifesto is all about opportunity. We will protect our environment, including local green spaces, guarantee education funding from nursery to 19, hold a review into higher education finance, and work to improve mental health services across the country.

Vote for them if:

• You want to see more cringe apologies from Clegg

• You’re really grateful for your 30k+ debt

• You want to wear yellow garmz to Juicy on May 7th

Our prediction:

Our exit poll placed the LibDems in fourth place with a mere 7.8 per cent of the student vote, while the electoral calculus predicts a 18.9 per cent vote for the LibDems. Instinct tells us, a miniscule amount of them will be from students.

Adam Heatherington (UKIP)

Former teacher and IT consultant Adam ran for Mayor of Liverpool back in 2012. That same year, he told the Echo he’s “a man on the street who’s had his eyes opened”. He wants your vote to up his street credz.

Key policies:

1. Stop the cuts to front line services, social care, and the fire and police services. End the bedroom tax and protect the elderly and vulnerable. Stop the privatisation of the NHS and guarantee an extra £12 billion in funding for 8,000 GPs, 20,000 nurses and 3,000 midwives.

2. Build affordable homes on Brownfield and not green space, any further housing in the city needs to be social housing.  Control private landlord rents and increase tenancies to 12 to 18 months.

3. Create more investment in the local economy and more investment in youth employment. In universities, ensure STEM subjects and nursing degrees are free from tuition fees. Get more students on vocational pathways to address the UK skills shortage.

Vote for them if:

• You’re not keen on green spaces

• You think degrees like Medicine and Engineering are more important than any other

• You wanna be able to smoke in a pub

Our prediction:

Our exit poll placed UKIP above independent candiate Niamh and TUSC at 4.86 per cent. Electoral calculus predicted 10.7 per cent of votes in Wavertree to be for UKIP.

Niamh McCarthy (Independent)

Niamh is a current student at Edge Hill University. When asked why she is standing, she modestly replied with “why not?”. At a recent hustings event, she claimed to be standing as an example to all young people to demonstrate how “easy it is”.

McCarthy has to political background and her middle name on Facebook is Mufasa.

Key policies:

1. According to Niamh, politics is full of “white, middle age, middle class, able bodied, cis-gendered, heterosexual, business-orientated, men”. She would like to see more representation of not just young people, but other minority groups.

2. McCarthy believes the disconnect between young people and MPs comes from their inability to relate, she vows to change this.

3. On austerity, she said: “I am really not an economist and this isn’t an issue I have a strong manifesto on, but let’s tax football transfers and use the money to invest into our NHS.”

Vote for them if:

• You want to protest vote

• You believe young people, ethnic minorities and the LGBT community are misrepresented in parliament

• You think it’d be jokes to have a student on the council

Our prediction:

Unfortunatley this Lion King fan came last in our exit poll, with an embarrassing 0.68 per cent of the vote. Not looking good for Niamh.

James Pearson (Conservative)

James lives in Wavertree and has been involved in local government for over 10 years, previously serving as a local councillor on Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council.

We couldn’t find anything more interesting to say about him, so in essence he’s pretty boring.

Key polices:

1. Supporting businesses and investment in Liverpool, to create jobs for hardworking people

2. Safeguarding our NHS and local care services ensuring the most vulnerable are protected

3. Standing up for and supporting our armed services and their families within the community

Vote for them if:

• You’re quite sheltered and are only voting for who your parents vote for

• You’re from a wealthy background and hate people who “scrounge”

• You’re a heartless southerner

Our Prediction:

Much like the other blue/red rivalry in Liverpool, these blues are well behind the reds, with only 13.61 per cent of the vote on our exit poll. The Tories also came third on electoral calculus predictions, with a mere 6.2 per cent of the vote.

Dave Walsh (TUSC)

Finding any information on this man was impossible. So here’s a photo of him at a recent hustings event, wearing an NHS embroiled shirt.

 Key policies:

1. Scrap student fees. Free education as a right for all

2. End cuts and austerity. For a democratic socialist society run in the interests of the millions not the billionaires

3. Trade union rights to fight low pay. A £10 an hour minimum wage now, scrap zero hour contracts

Vote for them if:

• You’re a commy

Our prediction:

Not even mentioned by electoral calculus, TUSC bagged the penultimate spot on our poll with 3.4 per cent of the student vote.

Martin Dobson (Greens Riverside)

Martin has lived in the area for 28 years, and is known for his infamous green blazer. Friend of The Tab, he has also recently come to prominence by setting up the Save Sefton Park Meadows Campaign.Currently, he runs his own business developing easy web applications for people who are unable to read or write.

Martin joined the Green Party in 2003 after leaving the Labour Party because of what he saw as their illegal invasion of Iraq and alignment with neo-liberal economic policies, which seemed to be giving our public services over to private companies.

See our recent interview with him for more details on his policies.

Key policies:

1. Rebuild our economy so everyone gets a fair share

2. Put the public at the heart of the NHS

4. Ensure every young person has access to quality education

Vote for them if:

• You’re a weed-smoking, animal-loving hippy

• You can’t stand any of the real parties

• You’re a realist

Our prediction:

According to our research, the Green Party are the second most popular among students getting an impressive 31.29 per cent of their vote. They came fourth in national stats for the Riverside contituency with a total of 9.8 per cent of the vote.

The remaining Riverside candidates didn’t get in touch with us, but here’s a photo of them all.