THE mum of a murdered Clacton schoolboy has announced her intention to stand for Clacton in the upcoming General Election.

Caroline Shearer, of Aster Close, Clacton, launched weapons awareness charity Only Cowards Carry following the fatal stabbing of her son Jay Whiston, 17, outside a house party in Colchester in September 2012.

She collected more than 50,000 signatures for a petition calling for knife crime awareness to be taught in schools and presented it at 10 Downing Street in 2015.

But she was left devastated after being told by the Government that it would not be included on the national curriculum, but would be left to individual schools to decide whether to teach pupils in their personal, social, health and economic education classes.

Mrs Shearer has now announced her intention to stand as an independent candidate for Clacton in the General Election on June 8.

“I have been working on the ground with the community for the past four-and-a-half years,” she said.

“It hasn’t been political, it is something I wanted to do.

“I want to see Clacton get back on track – it has all sorts of issues, from small ones such as dogs mess to the lack of street lighting at nights to big issues such as keeping our hospital units open.

“We have issues with crime and gangs - and I want to stand to help keep our community together and to keep it safe.

“I started the charity after my son Jay died to help tackle knife crime, but there are so many other issues here as well.”

Mrs Shearer previously met Prime Minister Theresa May when the then Home Secretary visited the Only Cowards Carry shop while campaigning for Conservative candidate Giles Watling during the Clacton by-election in 2014.

Tendring councillor Mr Watling is again hoping to be the Conservative candidate in the election, but will have to fight it out against cabinet colleague Neil Stock and others for the Tory nomination.

Ukip donor Arron Banks is also intending to stand in the election and will be visiting the town on Monday to launch his plan for the regeneration of Clacton.