Local candidate Chris is bidding to seize Blackpool South from Tories at next election

Chris Webb would be the first homegrown MP to represent the constituency if he is successful at the next Parliamentary election for the seat currently held by Conservative Scott Benton.

He was selected as Labour’s candidate earlier this year, and it will be his third attempt to win over voters having previously stood in Blackpool North.

The 37-year-old believes growing up in the resort means he understands first hand the challenges faced by others, and that is what fuels his desire to be their representative at Westminster.

He said: “I’ve always stood in my home town as it’s the only place I want to represent – it’s not just a road to Parliament for me.

“I’m out nine times a week canvassing and the message I am getting on the doorstep is people want someone local who has grown up here.”

On the day of our interview Chris’s personal experience of Blackpool’s problems are all too raw, after having his car broken into overnight.

And having had to overcome a late diagnosis of dyslexia (not found until he was 18 and at university), he is used to facing challenges head on.

Hard work also began at a young age, delivering Blackpool Gazettes as a 12-year-old paper boy around Grange Park and Layton, areas which are now part of the Blackpool South constituency following boundary changes.

Now settled with a home in the town, he is married to Portia who was elected as a Labour councillor for Tyldesley at May’s local council elections.

Chris says one of the keys to unlocking a better future for towns like Blackpool is to give them more control over their funding, which Labour’s Take Back Control Bill would mean.

Keir Starmer has pledged to devolve powers to communities if Labour wins the next General Election, believing the current system leaves control in the hands of a few people in London.

Chris said: “Labour will look at the biggest shift of power away from Westminster to communities and empower them.

“Blackpool knows what’s right for Blackpool and we need to give them the resources.”

This could include handing funding to charities to help take the strain off public services, and better identification of where money needs to be invested to get the best outcomes.

Chris also want to prioritise attracting bigger businesses to the town so talented young people will stay.

He said: “We lose so many of our young people to Manchester or Liverpool, and so we need more than tourism and the civil service.

“At the (Blackpool Airport) enterprise zone I would like to see jobs created for young people such as in factories building green technology so we keep talent here and attract new talent.

“Some fantastic new businesses have moved into Blackpool town centre, for example it’s great to see the investment made at Abingdon Street Market.

“As MP I would be looking to support local businesses with business rates relief or extra council funding.”

Blackpool Council has been awarded around £100m of Levelling Up funds from the current Conservative government, as well as securing a £40m Town Deal.

Chris says he welcomes the funding, and particularly supports the scheme to build a multiversity campus in the town centre, but warns: “While the headlines look great, to put it into context we have lost around £1.6bn in government funding since 2010/11 and that equates to just under £12,000 for every man, woman and child in the town.

“We need a fair deal. It’s scandalous 11,000 children are living in poverty in Blackpool.”

He also supports a recommendation from a recent House of Lords report for a dedicated ministerial role for seaside towns.

A former deputy police and crime commissioner for Lancashire, he is currently chair of the trustees for mental health charity Counselling in the Community, a foodbank volunteer and works for Tony Lloyd, Labour MP for Rochdale.

He added: “For me the challenges we face need local solutions and Labour wants to put power back with communities.

“It needs someone who lives here and has the same experiences and understands these challenges, and can fight in Parliament for the change we need.

“Blackpool deserves change and that’s what I’m fighting for.”

Incumbent MP Scott Benton had the Tory whip suspended in April after an undercover Times expose allegedly showed him offering to lobby ministers on behalf of gambling investors.

An investigation is still ongoing, with the Commons standards watchdog’s website saying Mr Benton is under investigation for “actions causing significant damage to the reputation of the House as a whole, or of its Members generally”.