Labour's Parliamentary candidate for Dewsbury has pledged to be a full-time MP if elected in 2015.

Clr Paula Sherriff, 38, was chosen from an all-woman shortlist.

Clr Sherriff, a councillor for Pontefract North on Wakefield Council, said becoming MP for Dewsbury was her sole focus.

The Dewsbury constituency also includes Mirfield, Kirkburton, Shelley and Denby Dale.

In a swipe at current Dewsbury Tory MP Simon Reevell – a practising barrister – Clr Sherriff said: “Most of all people want a full-time MP who will dedicate all their time to standing up for them.

“I guarantee if I’m elected as MP for Dewsbury at the next election I will take no other paid work.

“Being an MP should be enough for anybody. I think it is outrageous that Mr Reevell continues to work as a barrister. I think it’s wrong.”

Glasgow-born Clr Sherriff came to Yorkshire almost 25 years ago.

She worked in Victim Support for 10 years before moving into the health care sector. She works in dermatology for NHS contractor Virgin Care.

Clr Sherriff, who is single and lives in Castleford, said ordinary people were increasingly divorced from Westminster politicians and Government policy “made things tougher” for them every week. She added: “We need Labour MPs who have lived real lives, who have done real jobs, who know what it’s like to worry about paying the bills and making the money last until pay day.

“I know that I can win for Labour in Dewsbury.

“It needs an MP who will rebuild trust with an electorate that thinks ‘we’re all the same.’

“I want to put some integrity back into politics. I want to be a community MP who people can talk to in the street.”

Dewsbury’s last Labour MP was Shahid Malik, who served between 2005 and 2010.

Mr Malik was a junior minister for justice, international development and communities under Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Clr Sherriff defeated Kirklees Council Cabinet member and Dewsbury East councillor Cathy Scott and Nasrin Ali, a councillor for Levenshulme in Manchester, to the Parliamentary nomination.