Hartlepool by-election takes a twist as SDP candidate drafts in a tank for rally ahead of polling day
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Residents will go to the polls on Thursday, May 6, to vote in Hartlepool’s Member of Parliament following the resignation of Labour’s Mike Hill, which has led to a by-election.
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Hide AdAs part of his campaign, he drafted in one of the regiment’s former tanks, a CVRT Sabre, as he made a speech on the Headland to gather support for his “vision for building jobs.”
Mr Bettney, from Barnsley, told the Mail he would use his experience in business and running boxing and rugby clubs in the role to tackle antisocial behaviour.
He plans to set up bonded warehouses around the newly-agreed Free Port on Teesside and encourage manufacturing and more jobs.
In the speech he said he did not believe the Labour or Conservatives would not get the job based on their experience or CVs.
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Hide AdHe said: "If you look at it, would you vote in the farmer from Thirsk or the doctor from Basingstoke? I don’t think you would.
"I think a town like this needs someone like me who grew up as an ABA boxer, grew up on a council estate, who knows what it’s like to be on the edge of antisocial behaviour and probably the wrong side of the law a few times when I was younger.
"But having the outlet of the Army, having the outlet of the boxing and the rugby clubs and being able to go in in life, have a full career in the Army and then spend over 10 years working in the oil and gas industry in the Middle East and building businesses from the ground up, I employ about 600 people and all this has come over 30 years of hard graft and learning.
"I don’t know any of these people know how to do job creation, I don’t think they know how to go into the tough areas.
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Hide Ad"I definitely understand their plight and what they need to get onto the straight and narrow.”