A FORMER mental health nurse has been announced as the Conservative Party candidate for City of Durham in the General Election.

Harvey Morgan, who has lived in the Durham area for most of his life, was educated in the city before moving onto Brookes University in Oxford where he gained his degree and qualified as a nurse.

His nursing career progressed in frontline NHS acute mental health services before joining University Hospital of North Durham in 2012.

He became a crisis team manager in the NHS the following year.

Mr Morgan was also an active member of the Royal College of Nursing serving as a council member

He said he remains passionately committed to raising awareness and championing mental health services.

Mr Morgan had now set up his own company and moved into the creative sector, working on numerous projects including a children’s animation film supporting healthy eating and a documentary raising awareness of veterans with PTSD.

Mr Morgan lives in Framwellgate Moor with his wife, Hayley, also a mental health nurse based at Lanchester Road Hospital, with their young son.

Mr Morgan said: “I am delighted to have been chosen as the Conservative candidate for my home constituency, The City of Durham in the General Election on December 12. It is the constituency where my wife and I live and work.

“For years, I have watched the Labour Party consistently let the people of our Durham constituency down irrespective of living in one of our villages or in the city centre itself. We are being left behind by the rest of the county and indeed the region. It has to change.

“That will happen if I win the support of the electorate.

“We need to attract investment and new sustainable high value jobs to our constituency.

“Let’s get Brexit done and move on to our local Durham constituency’s priorities.”