THE Labour Party has selected a community activist to take on current Conservative MP Victoria Prentis in Banbury at the next general election.

Suzette Watson, who said she was a ‘passionate, indefatigable fighter’ in a campaign video, beat Sean Woodcock and Jamila Azad to the nomination on Saturday.

Ms Watson said she was ‘humbled and so thrilled’ to have been selected on her Facebook page.

She said: “We are going to fight with all our passion and strength to get the Tories out of office. We’re going to bring our brilliant Labour Party policies to life in Westminster, across the country and to Banbury and Bicester!"

“Together we will bring people together across the constituency, whilst empowering members and supporters to spread the good news.

“We will be present in every community, work to reach ever voter and reach out to everyone in our constituency.

“When we people know about our brilliant Labour Party policies they love them.”

Ms Watson was born in New York City, living in Norfolk briefly before living in the United States until she was 19. She is a dual citizen of the UK and the USA.

Mr Woodcock is the Labour Party’s group leader on Cherwell District Council and Mrs Azad is an Oxford city councillor and Oxfordshire county councillor.

Mrs Prentis has been the MP for Banbury since May 2015.

She beat Mr Woodcock in both the May 2015 and June 2017 general elections, although her majority was cut from 18,395 in 2015 to a still comfortable 12,399 in 2017.