THE leader of St Helens Council says the town's residents can have confidence Steve Rotheram would be a mayor who will practise what he preaches.

Liverpool Walton MP Steve Rotheram was selected on Wednesday as Labour's candidate for the role of Liverpool City Region mayor.

The 54-year-old father-of-three beat off competition from Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson and and Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger, with the winner of this contest hotly tipped to take the mayoral role.

Leader of St Helens Council, councillor Barrie Grunewald - who was Steve's campaign agent - said: "I am delighted with the election of my friend Steve Rotheram to be Labour's candidate in next year's metro election.

"As Steve's campaign agent, we ran a positive campaign which reached every part of the Liverpool city region and Labour Party members have overwhelmingly endorsed Steve's vision and he has a huge mandate to carry that vision forward as the Labour candidate."

He added: "I look forward to now campaigning with Steve as he takes his message out to the public. In the coming weeks he will be fleshing out his vision for the city region where his guiding principle will be 'no borough left behind'.

"With Steve as the Labour candidate, St Helens residents can have confidence that he will be a metro mayor who will bring that philosophy into practice. I look forward to working with him on the many bold and ambitious plans he has for the city region."

Mr Rotheram launched his campaign at Langtree Park in June with his priorities including social justice, infrastructure and economy.

Candidates from all parties will go to polls next year.

The metro mayor will represent six boroughs - St Helens, Knowsley, Liverpool, Halton, Sefton and Wirral.