Olympian takes on Leeds race

Mr Story fought a seat in Greater Manchester in 2005 and was the Conservative candidate in Wakefield five years ago.

He was also second on the Conservatives’ list of candidates in last year’s European elections but the party only secured enough votes to claim one of the six seats in Yorkshire.

Mr Story represented Great Britain in the 1996 Olympic Games and was twice in the winning crew in the Oxford-Cambridge boat race.

Leeds North West has been held by Liberal Democrat Greg Mulholland since 2005. He held the seat at the last election with a majority of 9,103.

The seat is a target for Labour which has selected Leeds councillor Alex Sobel to contest the seat.

• The Green Party will field its first ever candidate in the Barnsley Central seat having only formed a local organisation last year.

It has chosen Michael Short, a trade union convenor, to try and take the seat from Labour’s Dan Jarvis who had a majority of 11,771 when he won in a by-election in 2011.