How Bernie Sanders’ brother Larry plans to win David Cameron’s old seat After David Cameron announced his resignation, voters in Oxfordshire constituency of Witney might have thought they’d have some respite from […]

After David Cameron announced his resignation, voters in Oxfordshire constituency of Witney might have thought they’d have some respite from the media glare.

No such luck – the Green Party have nominated Larry Sanders, brother of American democratic socialist Bernie, who battled Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Larry Sanders, the Green Party’s health spokesman, moved to Britain in the 1960s and has lived in Oxford since 1969. He will use the by-election to battle NHS privatisation and campaign for proportional representation.

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Inequality

The last time he ran for a seat in Oxfordshire, at the general election last year, he secured only 4.4 per cent of the vote in nearby Oxford West and Abingdon.

Mr Sanders’ statement channeled his higher-profile brother’s focus on inequality and the need for outsider impetus in changing the system.

He said:

“The major political parties are in disarray. The polices of the last 30 years, shifting resources and power from the majority to the richest, culminated in the illegality and greed which crashed the economy in 2008. The Green Party has pledged to make Britain a fairer and less divided nation. “We need to show that we don’t want Britain to be the most unequal country in Europe. We don’t want unmet health needs to increase when we already have too few doctors, nurses, and hospital beds. “We don’t want the Government to impose unworkable contracts on 50,000 precious doctors, when it is clear that the supposed reason for the contract, a seven day hospital service, can’t be done at present funding. “This is a rich, capable and decent country. We can do better.”

Tory successor

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party has selected Robert Courts, a barrister and local councillor, to contest the election in the place of Mr Cameron.

Mr Courts will make the election difficult for Mr Sanders no matter what his family degree might be. The former Prime Minister had a majority of 25,155 in the last election and the party has held the seat since its creation in 1983, excluding a defection to Labour by Conservative Shaun Woodward in 1999, two years after the election.