Next Telford Labour candidate will be a woman

The constituency is part of the an All Women Shortlist (AWS) - a decision made by the party's National Executive Committee earlier this week that means only women will be shortlisted to run.

Applications are not currently being accepted but will be in the future.

The party's previous candidate Kuldip Sahota won 47.1 per cent of the vote compared to Ms Allan's 48.7 per cent.

He had previously expressed an interest in standing for the party again in the next election.

A regional Labour Party spokesperson said: "I can confirm Telford will be an All Women Shortlist (AWS). Some All Women Shortlists were decided by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) earlier this week.

"The National Executive Committee of the Labour Party decided which of our seats at this stage will be AWS.

"When the selection process begins it will be opened to women only. We've been championing all women shortlists for a long time."

The party started AWS after polling suggested women were less likely to vote Labour than men. It was introduced at its 1993 annual conference.

Labour used the process to select candidates in half of all winnable seats for the 1997 general election.

An aim of reaching 100 women MPs post-election was reached successfully.