Following significant gains in this year's local elections, the Manchester Liberal Democrats have announced a powerful team for their Shadow Cabinet.
The Shadow Cabinet will be led by Cllr Simon Ashley, the Leader of the Opposition, and his Deputy Leader, Cllr John Leech will take on the Shadow Planning and Environment Portfolio.
Senior Councillor Jackie Pearcey moves from the Finance Portfolio to the increasingly demanding role of Shadow Spokesperson on Crime and Disorder and Regeneration. This makes way for the former Group Chair Cllr Marc Ramsbottom to take on the Finance portfolio.
John Commons continues as the Shadow Spokesperson on Culture and Leisure, Paul Shannon continues to hold the Shadow Housing portfolio whilst John Bridges moves to Health and Social Care and the Voluntary Sector.
Veteran Withington Councillor, Alison Firth, joins the Shadow Cabinet as the Education and Equality spokesperson, and Councillor Iain Donaldson takes over the Street Environment and Trading Services Portfolio.
The Liberal Democrats are providing the City with a formidable shadow cabinet, to progress their work and get their message across to more and more Manchester people.
Announcing the changes, Cllr Simon Ashley stated that "I am very pleased that the Liberal Democrat benches offer such a strong pool of talent from which to choose my Shadow Cabinet. A team with our breadth of knowledge and experience will offer a formidable challenge to the weak and incompetent leadership which Labour are offering Manchester."
The Liberal Democrats want to build a City of all the talents. A City where the people from every walk of life feel safe, secure, healthy and involved in the democratic processes. This is in stark contrast to Labour's approach of creating jobs and investment for the sake of it, without providing the education and training which Manchester People need in order to take win those jobs and take advantage of that investment.
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