Clare Short to stand down and Conservative selections latest

10.43.35am GMT Tue 12th Sep 2006

Clare Short, Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood, has announced that she will be standing down at the next election. Birmingham Ladywood saw a massive swing (over 20%) to the Liberal Democrats at the last election and must be viewed as someone the Liberal Democrats should be looking to win, particularly due to Short's announcement she will be advocating not a Labour victory but a hung Parliament and Ladywood's Labour selection will use an all-women shortlist.

The Conservatives 'second tranche' of seats closing date has now also passed, it was on 8 September. The twenty seats in the second tranche were as follows, with just one in the West Midlands:

Battersea

Brigg and Goole

Bolton North East

Bolton West

Burton

Bury North

Cleethorpes

Corby

Dartford

Ealing Central and Acton

Great Yarmouth

Mid Norfolk

Northampton North

North Cornwall

Sittingbourne and Sheppey

South Thanet

Stevenage

Somerton and Frome

Stroud

Truro and Falmouth

Stafford Conservatives have also selected Councillor Jeremy Lefroy, a non A-List candidate. Councillor Lefroy was the candidate in Newcastle-under-Lyme at the 2005 General Election where the Conservative vote declined by 2.6% and the Liberal Democrats rose 3.4%. He is also Treasurer of Newcastle under Lyme's Conservative Association and a co-founder of Equity for Africa. Labour hold Stafford with a majority of 2,121.