Labour puts faith in NHS manager to win back Yorkshire swing seat

NHS manager Paula Sherriff has been given the task of unseating Simon Reevell, the Conservative MP for Dewsbury who was elected in 2010.

Previously a Labour seat, it is one of 106 constituencies across the country, including 11 in the region, where the party has said it will be focusing its efforts in 2015 as it tries to get back into power.

The Conservatives won in Dewsbury by a margin of just 1,526 votes three years ago.

Ms Sherriff, service manager for Wakefield Community Dermatology Service, said: “I’m hugely proud to have been selected as Labour’s candidate for Dewsbury.

“Our fantastic constituency has been neglected for the last three and a half years under a Tory-led government which doesn’t care about us and a part-time Tory MP who treats being our representative in Parliament as a second job.

“Most of all, people here want a full-time MP who will dedicate all their time to standing up for them, and I promise if I’m elected as MP for Dewsbury at the next election it will be my only job.”

Mr Reevell has previously defended his decision to work as a barrister alongside his duties as an MP, insisting he only uses his spare time for his legal career and pointing to the value of having “a foot in the real world”.

Ms Sherriff was born in Dunbartonshire, in Scotland, and now lives in Castleford. Her sister Lee has already been chosen to be Labour’s candidate for the Carlisle seat at the next election.