Blair rams home election message

Photo: Picture: ANTHONY MILLER

ALL smiles . . . Tony Blair and Phil Woolas at the Ram’s Head with landlord Geoff Haigh and landlady Heather Taylor.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair dropped into Oldham today to chat to local businessmen and women ahead of Thursday’s general election.

The former Labour leader, looking tanned and smiling broadly, was whisked to the Ram’s Head at Denshaw for a breakfast meeting with 30 local business representatives.

Mr Blair, now the Middle East envoy for the US, Russia, the UN and the EU, stepped down in 2007 when his former Chancellor Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.

This morning’s meeting, which was hosted by Geoff Haigh, landlord of the Ram’s Head, on Ripponden Road, included representatives of leading businesses such as Wiggett Construction, Inclusive Technology, Dronsfield Mercedes, Oldham Athletic, Trust Oldham IT technology company, John Saxon construction, and Patterson and Rothwell.

Mr Blair, flanked by the Labour candidate for Oldham East and Saddleworth, Phil Woolas, spent an hour discussing business concerns such as lack of bank lending.

Catch up with the candidates at www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/elections/