Green Party back independent parliamentary candidate Chris Furlong for Heywood County in next general election

Chris Furlong and Guy Otten, the Green prospective parliamentary candidate for Rochdale, shake hands outside the Toad Lane Co-operative Museum in Rochdale

The Green Party will be backing an independent parliamentary candidate in the next general election, instead of standing their own candidate for the Heywood County seat.

The next UK general election – which will see people vote for their MP and government – is scheduled to be held no later than 28 January 2025.

In a historic endorsement, the local Greens have announced they will be backing independent Chris Furlong, and are instead urging their supporters and members to back the former councillor, who announced he would be standing last month.
 

Read more: Former councillor Chris Furlong to run for MP of Heywood and Middleton as an independentPublished: 11 March 2023

Chris has lived in Heywood for over 25 years, and was a councillor for North Middleton between 2014 and 2018.

He is a chair of a charity that is comprised of volunteers that run the Back o'th Moss Community Centre. He was a school governor at St Josephs's in Heywood and is currently a governor at Holy Family College in Heywood.

He is a senior volunteer at Army of Kindness Soup Kitchen and one of three volunteers who run Helping Hand, which delivers bags of food to families across the borough

Chris said: “I have always been a strong green advocate and went to many campaign days on rallies with Middleton Save the Greenbelt while I was a councillor.

"I was an active councillor running surgeries and face-to-face meetings regularly.“

Changes to constituency boundaries at the next general election will see the current Heywood & Middleton constituency renamed as 'Heywood County'. The changes will mean the renamed constituency will be made up of the three Heywood wards, the West and North Middleton wards, Castleton, Norden, Bamford and Spotland and Falinge wards. South Middleton and East Middleton will be hived off to a new ‘Manchester Blackley’ constituency.
 

Read more: Middleton’s name still stands to be wiped off parliamentary map under revised constituency shake-upPublished: 09 November 2022