Tory Chris Green’s advice to Phil Brickell after losing his seat

Former Conservative MP Chris Green expressed his hope that winning candidate Phil Brickell would be able to challenge his party’s leadership.

Mr Green lost his Bolton West seat to Labour’s Phil Brickell – he received just 12,418 votes compared to Brickell’s 17,363 – and third-placed Dylan Evans – running for Reform UK – received 8,517 votes.

Speaking to The Bolton News after his defeat, Green said: “It’s a pretty gloomy morning, of course any general election is a tough campaign.

“Me, my team, the FA – so many people have invested so much. To get a result like this is really disappointing. We can only look back at the national situation – we feel like the country is in a pretty bad way on a whole range of different things and the Conservative Party is not exactly helping us at this time.”

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When asked what his next steps would be, Mr Green said: “Personally, I think I need to get a normal job. However, I don’t know what that will be at the moment.”

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Mr Green said he would advise winning candidate Phil Brickell to raise his voice and challenge the Labour leadership.

“He has a huge mandate to represent the fantastic community across Bolton West. He is an intelligent man – he will deal with all the details that the constituency demands, he will do the work that Westminster demands.

“But perhaps one of the biggest challenges – and this is certainly something I’ve done in the past – is to be able to raise your voice and challenge your party leaders to speak up on behalf of your electorate, beyond your career and the party leadership down there.”

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When asked what he would miss most, Mr Green said: “The great thing about being an MP is that, in a sense, you are your own boss.”

“Of course you’re working for your constituents, engaging in the community, engaging in so many different parts of the Bolton West constituency and then taking those issues to Westminster. It’s an enormous privilege to have access to people’s lives but it’s also incredibly satisfying when we can actually make a difference.”

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