Ex-MPs triumph in PCC elections

TWO former MPs with Oldham roots have won roles as Police and Crime Commissioners.

Jane Kennedy, who began her political life as a union organiser in Oldham, was elected PCC for Merseyside.

And Chadderton-born Vera Baird, the former Solicitor General, is PCC for Northumbria.

The pair, both Labour, will now be responsible for securing efficient and effective policing for their areas as well as managing the police budget.

Ms Kennedy (54), who was MP for Liverpool Wavertree until the last general election, won 70,884 votes — 56 per cent of votes cast.

Ms Kennedy uprooted her family from Royton in 1992 when she was elected MP for Liverpool Broadgreen.

Before becoming an MP, she was a full-time official for the Nupe union, which represented health and council workers in Oldham and Rochdale.

Her former husband Malcolm was a former Labour council candidate for the Waterhead ward.

Ms Baird (62), a former pupil at Yew Tree Primary School and Chadderton Grammar School, was MP for Redcar in the North-East from 2001 to 2010, when she lost her seat to the Liberal Democrats in what was the biggest swing in the country.

She was Solicitor General from 2007 to 2010 and is now a professor at London South Bank University. She lectures in law at Teeside University.
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