A former leader of Liverpool City Council is looking to return to the city's political scene by standing to be a city councillor in May's elections.
Lord Mike Storey, who led the council for the Liberal Democrats between 1998 and 2005, will stand for the party in the Childwall seat which the party will be confident of retaining.
Lord Storey, who has sat as a member of the House of Lords since 2011, will stand in place of his wife Carole Storey, who currently represents the party in Childwall but is standing down at these elections.
READ MORE: Phillip Schofield issues statement after brother found guilty of sexually abusing teenage boy
Lord Storey and current leader Richard Kemp will be hoping to mix their experience with the young energy of Carl Cashman, the former leader of the Lib Dems in Knowsley who has now moved to Liverpool and will be standing in the new Church ward.
Other candidates include Peter Millea, the Lib Dem's former cabinet member for regeneration, who is standing in his local Garston seat and Josie Mullen, a well known environmental campaigner who is standing in the Broadgreen ward that she used to represent.
Other former councillors hoping to return to the fold are Dave Antrobus, who is standing in the Aigburth area where he lives and was once a councillor and Norman Mills who will stand in the new ward of West Derby Leyfield.
The Lib Dem election team also includes Rebecca Turner, who is finishing her final year as a physics undergraduate in Waterfront South and Dr Shiv Pande, a founder of Liverpool’s Hindu Centre who is seeking election in the Edge Hill area where he was the GP for 40 years.
Howard Winik, the former independent chair of the council's standards committee is fighting for the Waterfront North Ward and Liverpool University student Seb Reigned-Wilson is standing in Greenbank.
Announcing his candidacy, Lord Storey said: "I want to serve the people of Childwall on Liverpool City Council because the city is at a real moment of crisis and my experience is very relevant to what is happening now.
“During my time as council leader from 1998 to 2005, the Liberal Democrats turned the city around, with hugely successful initiatives like Liverpool One and Liverpool Science Park, The European Capital of Culture, the Arena Convention Centre, the Cruise Liner Terminal, and World Heritage Status turned the city into the tourist mecca it is today.
“We inherited England’s highest tax and worst services and turned Liverpool into the most improved local authority in the country, while keeping council tax frozen. We stopped the sale of green spaces and pioneered Smoke Free Liverpool, which led the way to the indoor smoking ban nationally.
“Sadly, many people in our city are now sickened and disengaged from politics. Labour have disgraced themselves by running the city so badly that Whitehall Commissioners had to be brought into stop the corruption and waste. Meanwhile the Conservatives have also disgraced themselves with the shambolic way they are running the country.
He added: “In recent years, Liverpool Labour and the Tory government have fought each other, to the detriment of people in this city.
“This is a marked contrast to the way in which I and the Liberal Democrat administration built a working relationship with the government to get the best for the city. We put people first and that’s what the city needs to do now."
Liverpool will hold all out elections on Thursday May 4, where every single one of the council's newly formed 85 seats will be up for grabs.
READ NEXT
Thomas Cashman jailed for life with minimum term of 42 years for Olivia's murder
Phillip Schofield issues statement after brother found guilty of sexually abusing teenage boy
'Olivia died a scared 9-year-old and Cashman should be haunted for the rest of his life'
