THE Conservatives have chosen a candidate to contest Hartlepool where the party came fourth in a recent by-election.

Amanda Vigor, 39, was adopted as Conservative Parliamentary Candidate by the Hartlepool Conservative Association last Tuesday.

The tax consultant, who has a home in Billingham, has been involved in local politics.

She said: "This Government has consistently ignored the needs of the people of Teesside in favour of courting votes in the South-East."

Mrs Vigor was once a councillor in North-East Cambridgeshire in a seat which had been controlled by Labour since the early 1970s.

She also served for more than 11 years as a governor of a school for emotionally and behaviourally disturbed children. She has previously been a Conservative candidate for Stockton North and a candidate for the region in the North-East European Union elections.

In last year's by-election, Conservative candidate Jeremy Middleton was beaten into fourth place by the UK Independence Party, the Liberal Democrats and the winning Labour candidate Iain Wright. Mr Middleton received 9.7 per cent of the vote.