An ex chairman of the local Conservatives is contesting Runcorn and Helsby for The Liberal Party at the General Election.

This Thursday sees voters in the new Parliamentary seat - which includes the whole of Runcorn, Frodsham, Helsby and Elton - go to the polls.

Seven candidates are contesting it, one of whom will be Danny Clarke. He has stood several times for the Conservatives since 2015 and was the local party's chairman.

But after saying he had become disillusioned with the Tories, he stood for The Liberal Party in the May local elections. He is now their candidate for the Parliamentary vote too.

He said: "I want to work with Highways England and other Government departments to find ways for the M56 to sustain the ever increasing traffic and help reduce the very high risk of crashes and the impact it has in the constituency and the immediate area. Whether it to increase capacity of the motorway or other potential solutions."

He said the party would also reform Universal Credit and look at taxation and pay for the lowest earners, by increasing the tax threshold from £12,570 to £20,000.

A continuation of the original Liberal Party of William Gladstone fame which was one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom - along with the Conservative Party, in the 19th and early 20th centuries - the modern Liberal Party was founded in 1989, by members who opposed its merger with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to form the Liberal Democrats. It currently holds three council seats in Liverpool and two elsewhere in England.

He added: "We believe as the party who introduced the state pension back on 1908, that the pensionable age should be brought back down to 65, to do this pension system needs to be reformed.

"To support businesses particularly smaller businesses with the increase of a real living wage, we are proposing that we will reduce your corporation tax. By this we mean that you won't have to pay corporation tax on the first £200,000 turnover that your small/medium company has. We are a party that want to see everyone to be better off. See everyone and we mean everyone move up the economic scale."

A full list of candidates and polling stations for Runcorn and Helsby can be found here.

Polling day is this Thursday, July 4, and voters must take photo ID to the polling station. A full list of acceptable ID can be found here.