Richard Burt selected as PPC for Shrewsbury

11.15.00am GMT Sat 6th Nov 2004

Richard Burt has been selected as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Shrewsbury and Atcham to succeed Paul Marsden MP. He said he was delighted to have been chosen by an overwhelming majority of party members, following the ballot held at the Shire Hall on Saturday, 6 November. At a time of increasing support for the Liberal Democrats, he said he would work hard to retain the seat for the party.

Richard is a well-known West Midlands Liberal Democrat, and is currently group leader of the party on Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. During the 2001 general election, he was campaign manager for Matthew Green, who successfully won the adjacent Ludlow seat from the Conservatives, and became its popular current MP.

Richard has strong links with Shrewsbury, having taken his A levels at Shrewsbury College, worked for the Fire Service, and the former College for the Blind at Rowton Castle. He has had a varied career, starting in journalism as a photographer with the Shropshire Star, qualified as a teacher, and ran his own sportswear company for 10 years. Apart from politics, Richard currently works as an estate planning consultant, and lives in Kingswinford.