Ashfield council leader bidding for parliament to 'transform the district'

Councillor Jason Zadrozny has today announced he is launching a campaign to become Ashfield MP - just days after the Conservative Party confirmed their candidate to fight Labour's Gloria De Piero for the seat would be Mansfield District Council member Coun Lee Anderson.

Coun Zadrozny will be standing for the Ashfield Independents, a party he founded four years ago, said he hopes to make a "massive difference" in the area.

Coun Zadrozny, who has been council leader since April last year after Labour lost a vote of no confidence, said he intends to fight for the constituency in parliament.

In the May council election this year, Ashfield Independents gained a huge majority on the council, winning 30 seats out of 35.

Coun Anderson had previously been Labour member for Huthwaite and Brierley, but crossed the floor to join the Conservatives after he was not picked by Labour to fight the seat. He then stood down to successfully fight for a seat on Mansfield council.

Coun Anderson said he would like to see the foreign aid budget halved, and the money put into education, the health service, and policing if he was voted in.

Coun Zadrozny said: "People are ready for a change, they are fed up of party politics, they want someone who will listen and is going to deliver some promises.

"I think we have had an MP here for generations who have used Ashfield for their own career for party politics and I think we have shown as a council what a difference we can make.

"And if you have a MP pulling with the council as well, we could really transform this district and we are crying out for it, we have been left behind for such a long time, we need someone who is from Ashfield, who is for Ashfield who cares about making a real change."

Coun Zadrozny is no stranger to the general elections, having stood in Ashfield for the Liberal Democrats in 2010, losing out to Ms De Piero by just 192 votes.

He planned to stand again for the Lib Dems in 2015, but stood down following criminal allegations against him - he was later cleared of all charges.

Britain are due to go to the polls in 2022 for the next general election, although political experts believe one will be called much sooner due to the ongoing Brexit discussions and the battle for to become leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister.

Mansfield councillor aims to become Ashfield's MPCoun Zadrozny said: "It is clearly a challenge but I am in the fight to win it.

"The last time I stood against the current MP she won by a whisker, but at the last local election we got 30,000 votes to Labour's 6,000.

"We are going to knock on every door and convince people that they have a positive option.

"If we can draw a moat around Ashfield and say this seat won't decide who your Prime Minister is but it could have a strong hardworking voice; on that basis I think we'll win.

"And this is not a win for me, this is a win for the thousands of people who have been asking me to stand. I'm not fighting for me, I'm fighting for them."