Bernie Sanders’ brother chosen to fight for ex-PM David Cameron’s seat by Green Party
New York born Larry Sanders, 82, has been living in the UK since the late 60s and is fighting against NHS privatisation
THE brother of left-wing US President wannabe Bernie Sanders has revealed he will stand to replace David Cameron in the House of Commons.
Larry Sanders, 82, has been selected by the Green Party to fight the Witney by-election in the ex-PM's former constituency.
The brothers were born in New York but Larry moved to the UK in 1968 after studying at Harvard Law School and has long been active in Green politics.
His brother Bernie, 75, was defeated for the Democratic presidential nomination by Hilary Clinton.
Larry previously ran as a Green candidate in 2015 in neighbouring Oxford West and Abingdon - finishing fifth after securing 4.4 per cent of the vote.
The patch he is contending is West Oxfordshire is one of the safest Tory seats in the country.
Voting will be held on October 20, the same day as a by-election in Batley and Spen, prompted by the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox.
Mr Sanders, the Greens’ health spokesperson who has lived in Oxford since 1969, will use the by-election to fight against NHS privatisation and campaign for proportional representation after he was selected by the West Oxfordshire Greens.
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He has served a local councillor and spent eight years as leader of the Oxfordshire council Green group.
In a statement, Mr Sanders said: “The major political parties are in disarray.
"The policies of the last 30 years, shifting resources and power from the majority to the richest, culminated in the illegality and greed which crashed the economy in 2008.
"The Green Party has pledged to make Britain a fairer and less divided nation.
“We need to show that we don’t want Britain to be the most unequal country in Europe.
"We don’t want unmet health needs to increase when we already have too few doctors, nurses, and hospital beds.
“We don’t want the Government to impose unworkable contracts on 50,000 precious doctors, when it is clear that the supposed reason for the contract, a seven day hospital service, can’t be done at present funding.
“This is a rich, capable and decent country. We can do better.”
The Conservative Party has selected barrister, Robert Courts, 37, to replace Cameron as MP for Witney.