Labour have chosen former teacher and Manchester City councillor, Mike Kane to fight the Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election.

Mr Kane who was born in Wythenshawe and brought up in Brooklands and Northern Moor, was selected at a meeting tonight (Friday Jan 24).

He was educated at St Paul’s School in Baguley and taught at Springfield Primary School in Sale.

The former councillor, who represented Northenden, was a political adviser to James Purnell when he served in Gordon Brown’s cabinet during the last Labour government.

He is currently chief executive of Movement for Change which has campaigned for a living wage and on concerns over pay day lenders.

Other candidates selected to fight the by-election on February 13 include 26-year-old vicar Rev Daniel Critchlow from Old Trafford for the Tories, 60-year-old Wythenshawe-born entrepreneur John Bickley for UKIP and Eddy O’Sullivan for the British National Party.