Brexit Party candidate says voters want to 'move on'

Retired policeman Malcolm Webster, 58, is standing in the seat in next week's general election which is held by the Labour MP.

Labour’s policy is to negotiate a new deal put it to a referendum, alongside a Remain option and Mr McGinn has been an outspoken advocate of a second public vote.

READ MORE > 21 questions with Brexit Party candidate Malcolm Webster

On this stance, Mr Webster said: "I was surprised. This is a leave town and the feeling here is towards leave. People are just sick of it, even a lot who voted remain, and just want us out. I don’t think it’s politically astute in St Helens to come out and say that and I can’t agree with him at all.

"A second referendum? The first one was made divisive because it suited politicians for it be divisive. All they have done is fight and delay and they’ve made it look a lot harder than it should be."

The Brexit Party unveiled its policies in a 'contract with the people' which include a clean break from EU institutions, halving the foreign aid budget, scrapping HS2 and to abolish the House of Lords.

Mr Webster said: “People obviously want to see an end to Brexit, they want to get out and then we can move on to big issues. Things like unemployment, you’ve got quite a high level of unemployment in St Helens. You’re looking at children’s health, the problems with children’s social services. Homelessness, we need to be dealing with it.

“Labour’s side of it, they want to protect workers’ rights. I think they tend to forget that workers’ rights were fought for by the unions in this country, not by the European Union. They have totally lost touch with the working man.

He added: “Labour and Tories, their pure interest is power, maintaining that control that they have over this country.

"People are seeing it, and they’re sick to death because it’s so disingenuous what they’re hearing. When you hear them answering a question on television, the minute they can drift their answer towards the party line, they’ll latch on to what the party line is. It just comes out, there’s no truth, there’s no honesty, they’re not talking to you, they’re talking at you. Realistically, the people of this country need to wake up, the people of the north are waking up. We can see what it is because we’ve been ignored for so long.

“Our MPs, they’ve done nothing for us, both of them. They might work hard but what are they actually doing for St Helens? It looks like, it feels like and it is nothing. They are doing it for themselves and the Labour Party, not for us. That’s got to change.”

Brexit Party candidate Malcolm Webster

Mr Webster said that St Helens would benefit from the UK's ability to strike independent trade deals.

“First of all you have got the investment that we will push for, ending HS2 for a start.

"All that money we are going to save from not paying to the European Union, getting rid of HS2 and cut half of the foreign aid budget. The money has got to come up north. The other big thing that people haven’t gone on about is when we leave and we start doing these trade deals all over the world, the main port for stuff to come into this country is Liverpool.

“They are going to be bringing everything through Liverpool because it’s the major port in this side of the country. That in itself is going to spill out all over the north of England, particularly the north west and especially St Helens.

"Look at the transport links and routes, they come through St Helens. We’ve got the road and rail network here to cope. That expansion is going to come out here and jobs will be created from it, whether it means people from St Helens travelling to Liverpool or the fact that it comes out here and we actually get more businesses and more industry in St Helens again because it is an industrial town and we need that back.”