A Reform UK politician who headed up a gay and lesbian festival as its Pride Queen is set to stand in an upcoming Salford by-election.
Michael Felse, who was chosen to lead the 2011 Manchester Pride festival as his alter ego drag queen Ethol Mary, is among the six candidates vying to become a councillor for the Barton and Winton ward.
Mr Felse stood for the English Democrats in Salford’s 2012 mayoral election, where he finished eighth with 3.6% of the vote as Ian Stewart was elected.
He was also unsuccessful when he ran to become the Mayor of Doncaster as an independent in 2009 and as an English Democrat representative in Dewsbury at the 2010 general election.
“I have lived in Salford for 30 years. I was born in a Doncaster mining village. My first job from school was at the coal mine. I feel proud to be working class,” he told Salford Now.
Mr Felse said part of his motivation to re-enter politics came after the government unveiled a pilot scheme offering failed asylum seekers up to £10,000 each to leave the UK, with payments capped at four people per family if they depart within a week.
He compared this with the treatment of women born in the 1950s who were denied compensation in January after being affected by changes to the state pension age.
Labour MP Rebecca-Long Bailey, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on State Pension Inequality for Women, condemned the government’s decision at the time.
“It angered me to see at the same time they refuse to correct injustice for our WASPI women, denying them £2900,” he said.
The self-dubbed inventor of the ‘Department of Local Government Efficiency’ during the 2013 election was critical of the local council and asserted he could generate growth by making better use of the council-owned CorpAcq stadium.
“Locally, the Council are a joke. Lost in the face of opportunity. A big potato is the Salford Stadium, located in Barton.”
Mr Felse claimed “growth for our iconic Stadium can save Salford Council Tax payers over £1.5million a year. Every year.”
He added: “My growth plan is to attract £18 million of investment into the Stadium, launching North West’s AI Apprenticeships and Youth Sports Academy.
“Projecting a £60 million a year income I expect £25 million after running costs to go into local services, repairing potholes and revitalising Eccles Shopping Centre into a vibrant creative arts and media creative City of Excellence.
“Reform will reduce council tax while bringing jobs and creativity into what local people deserve most – quality of life. Opportunity knocks.”
Before standing to become Salford’s first directly elected city leader in 2012, Mr Felse was at the forefront of the 2011 Manchester Pride festival as his drag persona Ethol Mary, who he described as “more like a Grimsby Docker than Lady Gaga.”
At the time, he denied that leading more than a hundred colourful floats through the city undermined the seriousness of his politics.
“I don’t think I’ll be taken as a joke. It’s really important that we don’t suddenly think that everyone fits in one box, everybody is different but it is how do we engage those choices, he said in 2011.
“I think it isn’t making politics silly, it’s saying, no, let’s have a bit of fun.”
Kirsty Anne Downie (Independent), Anthony Ian Duke (Liberal Democrats), Catherine Goodyer (Labour), Jack Groom (Green Party), Holly Ann Muldoon (Conservative) are the five other candidates set to contest the vacant seat.
The by-election was called following the death of long-serving Labour councillor David Lancaster, who passed away in February after 60 years of public service.
Voters will head to the polls in the Barton and Winton ward on Wednesday, 22 April, to cast their votes for one of six candidates running.
