The Labor Party announced its candidate for the Hartlepool supplementary election.
Dr. Paul Williams will try to keep the old Job seat in the next contest.
Dr. Williams was MP of Stockton South from 2017 to 2019, losing his place as Boris Johnson won the general election by an overwhelming victory.
The pre-election contest was triggered by Mike Hill’s resignation, who dropped out amid allegations of sexual harassment.
In September 2019, Mr. Hill was suspended by Labor after allegations that he sexually harassed a woman.
But a month later, the 57-year-old revealed that he had been reinstated to the party and said he “completely rejected” the charges.
The final hearing of an employment tribunal on Hill is scheduled for May 10.
Mr. Hill held the Hartlepool seat two years ago with a majority of more than 3,500 votes – which means that the electorate was one of the few strongholds of the “Red Wall” that Labor has managed to maintain.
Dr. Williams, an advocate of a second EU referendum before losing his seat, will be running in a constituency where almost 70% of voters supported Brexit.
Mike Hill resigned with immediate effect this week
Labor said he has been “working on the front lines” during the COVID-19 pandemic, attending patients at Hartlepool One Life Centers and working at the Urgent Care Center at Hartlepool Hospital.
Dr. Williams said it was an “honor” to be selected as a candidate for the “brilliant city”.
“Conservatives have disappointed Hartlepool,” he said.
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“Over the past decade in power, they’ve taken Hartlepool out, taken the police off the streets and taken services out of our local hospital.
“The conservatives in Teesside are focused on Stockton and Middlesbrough and Hartlepool picks up the crumbs from the table, if anything.
“We don’t want people to have to leave town to get good jobs, go to the hospital or go shopping.
“We want jobs and services right here in Hartlepool for the locals. That is why I will fight as a Hartlepool MP.”
Boris Johnson hopes to increase his parliamentary majority with a victory in the contest
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “Paul has already kept the local population safe as a doctor during the COVID crisis – he will be a powerful voice for the city as its next parliamentarian.
“I can’t wait to campaign with him.”
A spokesman for the Hartlepool Constituency Labor Party described Dr. Williams as the “top choice”, but some reports suggested that he was the only candidate presented.
Amanda Milling, co-chairman of the Conservative party, said that Labor selected a “failed former MP who has already been rejected by the people of the Northeast.”
“In the 2016 EU referendum, Hartlepool voted 69.6% to leave. Paul Williams wanted to stay in the EU and worked to thwart Brexit,” she added.
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“He lost his seat in 2019 because he did not respect the opinions of the people he represented.
“Only conservatives have made Brexit and will fulfill the people’s priorities in Hartlepool.”
The pre-election will be an electoral test of how the PM handled the coronavirus pandemic and its “leveling” agenda for parts of northern England.
But it will also provide an initial assessment of Sir Keir’s hopes of recovering from his party’s poor performance in the last election.