ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

Labour MP John Heppell to stand down

John Heppell, the Labour MP for Nottingham East, has announced he will not contest his seat at the general election, owing to his wife's ill health. He has representd the seat since 1992, when he defeated Tory MP, Michael Knowles.

Ewan Lamont was selected to contest the seat for the Conservatives in January 2009 and needs a swing of a little over 12% to overturn the notional Labour majority of 7,083.

Jonathan Isaby

Ewan Lamont selected for Nottingham East

Ewan Lamont was yesterday selected to fight Nottingham East at the next general election.

Ewan is a project manager who stood as a council candidate in Nottingham in both 2003 and 2007 and was chairman of the Nottingham South Conservative Association at the time of the 2005 general election. He is currently vice-chairman of the Conservative branch in his local ward, Mapperley.

He is a former president of the Students' Representative Council at Glasgow University, served in the Territorial Army as a Junior Under Officer and also plays American Football for the Nottingham Caesars.

Nottingham East has been held for Labour by John Heppell since 1992, when he ended the 9-year tenure of the Conservative, Michael Knowles. The Rallings and Thrasher projection (based on the 2005 general election result) of the seat after minor boundary changes suggests that Heppell will go into the general election defending a notional majority of 7,083 over the Conservatives, with Ewan requiring a swing of a little over 12 per cent to take the seat.

There is a vast amount of information about the history of the seat here.

Jonathan Isaby