LABOUR has selected its candidate to fight for the Colchester Parliamentary seat in the next General Election.

Newcomer Tina McKay was elected by party members at a hustings in Greenstead Social Club on Saturday.

The 37-year-old, for whom the election will be her first poll in Colchester, pipped stalwart Julie Young to the post.

The pair fought off competition from Wivenhoe’s Rosalind Scott, Solma Ahmed and former Clacton parliamentary candidate Tasha Osben.

Mrs McKay, who lives in Shrub End, works in communications for a veterans’ charity and is married to serving soldier, John.

If elected, the Red Labour group member and Momentum supporter, has pledged to match her current salary and distribute the remainder of the £77,379 among community groups.

She said: “We moved to the area through John’s job and fell in love with the place.

“Being part of the Forces community gives me an insight into the pressures facing Army families, such as the changes to service family accommodation.

“When I got the chance to represent the people of Colchester I knew I had to take it, and I am delighted local party members were inspired by my vision of a Britain that works for everyone, and chose me from a strong field of candidates.

“I want to be a true representative of the people and that’s why I’ve made a commitment to the members to be a workers’ MP on a worker’s wage.

“Real change comes from the people, when even governments can no longer ignore the organised pressure from civil society – just look at the issue of gay marriage to see how effective communities working together to achieve change can be, in the face of seemingly-overwhelming opposition from the powers that be.”

Alan Short, chairman of Colchester Labour Party, said: “I am delighted to welcome the election of Tina McKay as our Parliamentary candidate and she has the full support of the Colchester Labour Party.

“This town, like so many others, has suffered under years of Tory austerity – rough sleeper numbers are growing, affordable and social housing is in desperately short supply and there is real uncertainty over the future of our hospital - and all as a result of eight years of Tory and Tory/Lib Dem Government.

“Like Jeremy Corbyn, Tina offers hope to the people of Colchester.

"We need real change and it should start here - Will Quince’s time as our unrepresentative MP is numbered and I look forward to working with Tina to unseat him.”

Mrs McKay has also pledged to take part in an “open contest” before each General Election and vowed to “regularly” report back to the CLP.

'Julie deserved a shot but we will back bid to unseat Tory Quince'

IN the 2017 General Election, Labour candidate Tim Young came a close second behind Conservative winner Will Quince.

But in the aftermath of that election, the Labour Party’s national executive committee issued a list of seats to be contested by women only, which included Colchester.

During last year’s snap election, Mr Young came within 6,000 votes of winner Will Quince, but crucially overtook the Liberal Democrats as the constituency’s second party.

Mr Young took 18,888 votes, compared to previous candidate Jordan Newell’s 7,852, in 2015.

At the time, Mr Young spoke of building on his success ahead of the next General Election, labelling the seat a Labour/Conservative marginal.

It had been expected his wife, Julie, would be a strong contender to become the candidate, having served as Colchester mayor in 2016/17 and having led the Labour group in Essex County Council.

Mr Young said: “I am massively disappointed for Julie as I believe she would have been an excellent parliamentary candidate with the experience she has.

“She performed outstandingly well in the meeting and I believe she deserved the chance to run to be the town’s MP.

“But I respect the democracy of the party and I will be getting behind Tina in her bid to unseat Will Quince.”