����ý

The Conservative candidate for next year's Liverpool City Region mayoral election has been named as Tony Caldeira.

Steve Rotheram is Labour's candidate, the Liberal Democrats' candidate is Prescot North councillor Carl Cashman while councillor Tom Crone will represent the Green Party.

Liverpool City Region comprises of the city, St Helens, Knowsley, Sefton, Wirral and Halton in Cheshire.

The mayoral election is on 4 May.

'Mission and focus'

Mr Caldeira was born in 1970 and is a textile businessman who went to school in St Helens and lives in Liverpool.

He said: "The Liverpool City Region has made good progress but we still lag behind other city regions in the UK. This needs to change.

"My focus will be on creating the economic growth and the jobs that our region needs to not only catch up to, but to overtake, our competitors, both at home and abroad."

He said he has campaigned across Wirral and Liverpool so has a "unique understanding" of the whole area and was "ideally placed to deliver for ordinary working people across the region.

He said his mission was "to build a city region that works for everyone" and pledged to represent all residents of the city region, not just those in the city.

Mr Caldeira also promised to use the new mayoral powers to improve the regions's transport network, speed up planning and build more homes and workplaces on brownfield sites whilst protecting important green spaces.

He also said he would ensure local authorities worked more closely together, that he would improve the skills base across the area and insisted that he would get the best deal for the City Region.