Labour Mayor selected to fight Rees-Mogg seat

Labour's Dan Norris will stand for Parliament for the first time in 14 years

West of England Mayor Dan Norris has been selected by the Labour Party as their candidate for North-East Somerset and Hanham in the upcoming general election.

It's 14 years since Mr Norris lost his seat in North East Somerset, to current Conservative MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.

It is the second time the pair will battle for the constituency, which now includes Hanham in south Gloucestershire following boundary changes.

Mr Norris, who served as Wansdyke MP between 1997 and 2010 said he was "delighted and proud", while Mr Rees-Mogg said he "wished whoever is selected well".

Jacob Rees-Mogg received a knighthood after being chosen as part of Boris Johnson's resignation honours list

Mr Norris was briefly a government minister under former prime minister Gordon Brown

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg currently has a majority of nearly 15,000

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg will be defending a majority of 14,729 having been re-elected three times since 2010.

In a short statement to the BBC he said: "I wish whoever is selected well and look forward to the election campaign when it comes."

However he appeared to pre-empt Mr Norris' selection by criticising one of his policies in a campaign video posted on social media earlier this week.