Vincent Cable MP re-selected to Represent Twickenham

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 23rd Jun 2003

At York House tonight the Liberal Democrats will formally re-adopt MP Vincent Cable to defend his parliamentary seat at the next General Election. The party has unanimously invited him to continue to represent them.

Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of London, came to Twickenham to speak in his support.

Vincent Cable said that he was: "delighted and honoured to be asked to continue. I have indicated that if re-elected I would be happy to serve another full term in parliament before handing over to another Liberal Democrat. I shall put up a strong campaign to defend the seat though with a majority of 7655 and the Conservatives in disarray I am very confident of holding it.

The Conservatives need a swing of almost 8% to win in

Twickenham. Having failed to find anyone to contest the seat when they tried looking for a candidate a year ago and an increasingly unpopular Conservative council, they are not in good shape".

Vincent Cable was first elected in 1997 and is a member of Charles Kennedy's Shadow Cabinet, as spokesman for Trade and Industry. He is one of the most active MPs at Westminster and last year was the third out of 659 MPs in terms of the number of questions asked in Parliament and speeches made.