A RUNCORN actor is in the running to become the new metro mayor for the Liverpool City Region.

Gary Cargill, who played newspaper editor John Smith in the 2018 film Peterloo and appeared in shows such as Hollyoaks and cop drama Safe House, is standing as the Green Party candidate in the May 6 elections.

Son of longstanding Halton Labour councillors Ellen and Dave Cargill, he will also be running as a Green candidate in the borough’s council elections in the Mersey and Weston ward.

Born in Liverpool and raised in Runcorn, he has pledged to ‘turn the city region green’ and ‘inspire real long-lasting change’ if elected.

He said: “We are living through an environmental and economic crisis and the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities are the ones suffering the most.”

Mr Cargill claimed the next ten years ‘are the most important in the history of humankind’ and pledged to campaign for ‘people-powered’ politics across the city region.

He added: “I think that a better future for our region is possible if we stand together and create a new, vibrant, people-powered participatory politics in Liverpool City Region.”

The government has said the election for Liverpool City Region Mayor will go ahead, despite concerns over Covid 19, and Mr Cargill is urging everyone to turn out and vote.

He added: “Men, women and children had to lay down their lives in the name of universal suffrage.

“Today, we have the power in our hands to make change happen through the ballot box.

“It breaks my heart that so many people don’t exercise the power that they have because they don’t believe change is in their hands. It is.”

The role of Metro Mayor heads up the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority which covers the local council areas of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral.

Other candidates in the running to become Metro Mayor are: Jade Marsden (Conservative Party) David Newman, (Liberal Democrats) and Steve Rotheram (The Labour Party).