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Gay news: Gay man who attempted citizen's arrest on the MP has considerable local support
Manchester's Green Party
Gay activist to stand against Hazel Blears at next election
A gay rights activist and member of OutRage has been chosen by the Hazel Must Go campaign group to challenge Hazel Blears for her Salford and Eccles seat at the general election.
David Henry, 24, a member of the Green party and co-chair of Salford Youth council, will contest a constituency that was long seen as safe Labour territory until Blears became embroiled in the expenses scandal last year.
It emerged that she had twice sold a London property funded through the second home allowance without paying capital gains tax. Although she had not broken any rules, she agreed to pay HM Revenue around £13,000 to cover the unpaid tax.
After Gordon Brown described her behaviour as "completely unacceptable", Blears announced that she was resigning as communities secretary the day before the local and European elections, angering some Labour activists who believed it was damaging to the party's interests. There was subsequently an attempt to deselect her, with local residents forming the Hazel Must Go campaign, which also criticised her alleged hypocrisy over hospital closures.
Henry became famous in the area for attempting a citizen's arrest on Blears at her Labour party re-selection meeting last year, and will reportedly represent a coalition of left-wing activists and trade unionists, rather than standing as the Green candidate.
The Conservatives have also chosen a gay man to contest the seat. Primary school teacher Matthew Sephton, who is chairman of LGBTory, the party's affiliated gay group, was selected in December.
Both men have been attacked by independent candidate Richard Carvath, who wrote on his blog that he believed the area's constituents would not want to be represented by "homosexual pervert" Sephton and that Henry was an "anarchist sexual pervert".
