FRENCHAY & Downend councillor Liz Brennan has been selected to contest the Bristol South seat for the Conservatives at the next general election.
Cllr Brennan, who has represented the ward on South Gloucestershire Council since 2021, will take on Labour’s Karin Smyth, who had a majority of 9,859 at the last election.
Bristol South has been held by Labour since 1935 – the only seat in southern England outside London to have been continuously held by the party since that time.
As part of her role as a candidate Cllr Brennan accompanied Leanne Ekland, whose 16-year-old son Max Dixon and his best friend Mason Rist, 15, were stabbed to death near their homes in South Bristol in January, to Westminster to meet schools minister Damien Hinds.
Leanne and her friend Carly Kingdon are campaigning to introduce bleed kit-training and lessons highlighting the consequences of carrying knives onto the National Curriculum.
Afterwards Cllr Brennan said: “As a mother of teenage boys, I can’t begin to imagine what Max’s family has been through over the past few months, and my heart goes out to Leanne, Carly and everybody who knew Max.
“It was brilliant to meet the minister and hand our letter to ask that bleed kit training be rolled out across secondary schools at the earliest opportunity.”