Battle lines drawn as Conservatives meet to select Candidate.

Conservative party members will meet this afternoon in Dalston to select the parties candidate for the new Penrith and Solway constituency.

The boundary commission review has set out changes to constituencies across the country with major changes in Cumbria that will see two Conservative MP’s go head to head for party members votes this afternoon.

Penrith and The Border MP Dr Neil Hudson and Workington MP Mark Jenkinson are the two candidates up for selection by members who will today selected which of the two current MP’s will stand as the Conservative Party candidate in the next General Election for the Penrith and Solway seat.

The new constituencies still need to be put before parliament for approval but Conservatives and Labour are both selecting candidate for the new constituencies signalling the expected support to approve the new constituencies when they come before parliament later this year.

Only Conservative Party members who live in the new Penrith and Solway Constituency will have a vote at the meeting taking place in Dalston this afternoon.

Both MP’s are expected to continue as Conservative MP’s for their current constituencies until the next General Election after todays selection process is decided and one of the MP’s will know if they have the support of party members to be it’s candidate at the next election.

Voters across Penrith and Solway will not get a say in the selection process taking place today, but will get a say as they vote at the next General Election, that must take place by January 2025 but could see a snap General Election called at any time like the 2019 snap election that both MP’s were first elected at.