Political journalist Paul Waugh vies to become Labour MP

A political journalist will be Labour’s candidate for Rochdale in the general election.

Paul Waugh will be vying to regain the seat for the party, which lost out to George Galloway in a by-election in February.

That contest was prompted by the death of MP Tony Lloyd, who held the seat after serving as Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Workers Party of Britain’s Mr Galloway said he will stand again.

Writing on X, Mr Waugh said: “It’s a true honour to have been selected as Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for my home town.”

Mr Waugh has been a political journalist on the Evening Standard, the Independent, the Huffington Post, the i newspaper, and a presenter of the BBC’s Week In Westminster.

He had applied to stand in the February by-election, but missed out to Azhar Ali, who then lost the support of his party over comments made about Israel and the 7 October Hamas attacks.

Martyn Savin of the Greens, and Andy Kelly of the Liberal Democrats, have also announced they will be standing.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Galloway, who won a 5,697 majority in the February contest, said: “It’s been a very busy period for us and we are going into the campaign very energetically.”

The general election will take place on 4 July.