Paul Marsden to stand down as MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 31st Jul 2004

In a surprise move, Paul Marsden MP has announced that he will not be standing again for parliament at the next election. He won the Shrewsbury and Atcham seat in 1997 and 2001 as the Labour candidate, but later defected to the Liberal Democrats. Since then, a lot of effort has been put in to the constituency, and work is already in hand to select a LibDem successor to contest the general election, expected to be next May.

One possible candidate is Nicola Davies, who narrowly failed to win the Birmingham Hodge Hill seat in the recent parliamentary by-election, despite a 26% swing away from Labour. She grew up in Shropshire, and her parents live in Shrewsbury, so her local connections and recent campaigning experience will be of interest to the local selection panel. Other contestants will be invited to put their names forward soon.