TWO months ago Conor McGinn would not have been a name on the lips of many people if the subject of potential successors to the outgoing St Helens North MP Dave Watts was brought up for discussion.

But with a General Election just three months away, he now finds himself favourite to take the seat in a constituency still regarded as a Labour heartland.

He paid tribute to the outgoing Dave Watts stating: “I see myself as continuing Dave’s work and although I will be my own man I will be an MP, if elected, in his mould.”

McGinn has distanced himself from his father’s Sinn Fein background, insisting he is his own man whose political affiliations have always been with Labour.

He says he will campaign on issues he believes are having the biggest impact on people: “For many people in this community the cost of living crisis is not just a phrase but part of everyday life. It means that the pensioner travels to the Hardshaw Centre because they can’t afford to heat their home, the mum who works in Manchester but has to travel on clapped out trains or the man who works at Pilks but has chronic bronchitis and has to pay the bedroom tax.

“These are all the types of issues I will be raising and fighting for on behalf of the people of St Helens North.”

He is also targeting jobs and growth locally as key issues citing the potential of Parkside as vital to the whole of St Helens.

Claiming that the next election is the most “important in a generation”, He said that the survival of the NHS is at stake and if elected he would vote to scrap the Tories’ NHS and Social Care Act.

Answering the charge that Labour candidates are almost guaranteed to be elected in St Helens, he responded: “I will fight this campaign like it’s the most marginal seat in the country. There’s no such thing as a safe seat any more. I would never take it for granted as I am asking people to place their trust and confidence in me to be their voice in parliament.

“They can expect someone who says what he means and means what he says.”

McGinn has been living in the town centre with his baby son and wife Kate, who is originally from South Wales.

He moved to London at 18 to study and then worked for a mental health charity and manage a charity that works with prisoners. He said It was through this work that he said inspired him to he became more involved in politics.

A member of the Labour Party’s national executive, he was also a political advisor to shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker before recently resigning to concentrate on the election.

He added: “I like to feel I’m rooted in the values of family and the community and hard work.”