Unite’s Political Director was among the first to toast the news that Liz McInnes had won Labour’s selection for the Heywood and Middleton by-election last night:

Congrats #NHS worker/activist @LizMcInnes, you'll be a great MP for Heywood and Middleton! Roll on #GE2015

— Jennie Formby (@JennieUnite) September 15, 2014

McInnes is being billed by her party as an “NHS worker” and “healthcare scientist”. She is the secretary of her local Unite branch and the chair of Unite’s Health Sector National Committee. Bizarrely her Twitter account disappeared as soon as she was announced as Labour’s candidate, as did her profile page on her local Labour website. Her publicly available Facebook page however still carries dozens of photos of her waving Unite flags at union marches, attending Unite conferences and wearing a “never kissed a Tory” t-shirt. As well as some, ahem, less safe for work snaps.

Already Liz is in robot candidate mode: “Only Labour can make Britain better off, putting hardworking families first with a plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.” She didn’t always stick to the party line however, condemning Miliband and Balls in a letter to the Guardian during the 2010 leadership contest: “If only one of the Eds were an Edwina, then we might have a real choice”. 55-year old Liz beat 56-year old age discrimination campaigner Miriam O’Reilly – ageism at the heart of the Labour Party…