A LECTURER and councillor from Burnley is in the running to become one of the North West’s MEPs.

Coun Wajid Khan, who has represented the borough council’s Daneshouse and Stoneyholme ward, has made the Labour shortlist of eight for next year’s elections.

And he has already secured some high-level support for his bid - including a message of support from former Pakistani Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain.

Chorley MP and Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle, Labour veteran Sir Gerald Kaufman, and Lancashire party leaders Jennifer Mein, Julie Cooper and Alyson Barnes have also given their backing to his campaign. His European pedigree is well-established as he serves on the executive board of Volonteurope, a continent-wide volunteering and citizenship organisation.

And after studying for a masters degree in European law, he lectures about the EU for the University of Central Lancashire at their Princess Way campus.

He said: “I was born and grew up in Burnley and I’m passionate about where I come from and the whole of our region, with its social and industrial heritage and future.”

MEP Arlene McCarthy is the only returning Labour candidate for the north-west, leaving the field wide open for would-be candidates.

The deadline for voting is July 31 and Coun Khan will be kept busy attending husting events across the region until then.

Party supporters will be asked to give their first and second preferences in the ballot.

If he succeeds, the councillor will be the second East Lancashire born Euro MP, after Sajjad Karim, who was elected for the Liberal Democrats in 2004, after a stint as a Pendle councillor, and later defected to the Conservatives.