South West Surrey selects first woman candidate

6.05.18pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 25th Aug 2006

Sarah DiCaprio will challenge Tory Jeremy Hunt for the South West Surrey seat

South West Surrey Liberal Democrats have selected Surrey County Councillor Sarah DiCaprio - and the constituency's first woman candidate - as its next PPC.

At the hustings on Friday 23rd June, a close contest saw Sarah Di Caprio chosen to compete against Tory Jeremy Hunt at the next election. Sarah is a Surrey County Councillor for Guildford South-East in the neighbouring constituency. She is one of five Lib Dem councillors who achieved a shock result at the county elections in 2005 by taking all the Guildford town seats for the first time.

Sarah, who is Lib Dem Environment Spokesperson at Surrey County Council, said she was delighted to have been selected and had already started to immerse herself in local issues, including working with former Guildford MP Sue Doughty, reselected in May as the town's PPC. "There are several cross-border issues that I am working closely with Sue on as well as those specifically for the constituency. We had a disappointing run at the last General Election, with the Tories retaining the seat on a larger majority than the previous election. But we are in a very strong position here, with a lot of support for the Lib Dems and unlike our opponents we actually have some policies nationally! I'm confident we can make that breakthrough - just look at Bromley & Chislehurst. The hard work starts here."

Commenting on the selection, constituency party chair Derek Seale said the contest had provided two very good candidates from which to choose and members and officers were very much looking forward to working with Sarah. "Our first priority is putting in a strong performance at next May's local elections and that will provide a solid platform for our continued success."