A mother-of-two is hoping to end Labour’s hold on Huddersfield.

Itrat Ali has been selected to contest the Huddersfield seat for the Conservatives at the 2015 general election. She will be up against the town’s veteran MP Barry Sheerman.

Mrs Ali, married to Imran, has two daughters aged 15 and 10 who attend Kirklees schools.

Her background is in the pharmaceutical industry and she now works with local clinical commissioning groups and hospitals in protocol setting.

She said: “The NHS is one of my passions, and I’ll be making it a priority for Huddersfield - I want to keep local services accessible for people.

“I have first hand experience of working in the health industry.

“I see the GPs and hospital consultants in the hospitals strive to be able to do their jobs with less paperwork and management bureaucracy that can still exist.”

Mrs Ali joined the Conservative Party as a teenager and was involved in setting up the Young Conservative group while a pupil at Heckmondwike Grammar School.

Work took her away from politics, but she re-joined the Conservatives in 2000 and has been involved in local campaigns.

She is part of the Yorkshire Conservative Policy Forum and is chairwoman of the Yorkshire and Humber Conservative Muslim Forum, which feeds back Muslim views to the party.

The 2015 general election will not be the first time she has stood as a prospective parliamentary candidate.

In the 2010 election she contested the Makerfield seat, as a safe Labour seat.

She came second and says she is proud of increasing the Tory vote in the constituency, which rose by 5.2%.

She added: “It gave me the experience of campaigning, but I always wanted to represent my home area.

“I am a Yorkshire girl as people can tell by my accent, and Huddersfield is a few miles from where I grew up and now live, it’s a place I am passionate about.”

She does, of course, face a challenge in un-seating Barry Sheerman, the Labour MP of 35 years.

“I think it’s time for a change,” she added. “I think I can be a visible MP here in Huddersfield.”

Since being chosen as the Conservative candidate she has met university leaders and freshers, adding: “It was very important to meet the new freshers, engaging with young people is important for the future of politics.”