READING EAST MP Matt Rodda will stand again for Labour in the forthcoming general election.
The poll must be held by January 2025, with parliament due for dissolution on Tuesday, December 17, 2024.
However, it is thought that the vote will take place at some point in 2024, although the winner of Conservative leadership election may choose to call an election sooner.
Mr Rodda was first elected in 2017, beating Conservative Rob Wilson in the processs. He increased his majority in the 2019 poll. He first contested the seat in 2015, having been a councillor in Reading for many years.
Former Labour shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds stood in 2010, while Tony Page was the party’s candidate in 2005.
Under Labour Party rules, sitting MPs must go through a ‘trigger ballot’ process in which Labour Party members, trade unions and socialist societies vote on whether the incumbent Labour MP is adopted for the next election. It was under this process that Mr Rodda has been selected for the forthcoming vote.
“I am immensely proud to represent my community in Parliament; my focus is – and always has been – to stand up for Reading, Woodley and Earley and do what I can to improve the lives of local people,” Mr Rodda said in a statement.
“Whether the next election is in two weeks or two years, I will be campaigning hard for a Labour MP in Reading East and a Labour Government for our Country.”
“While the Conservatives have spent the summer fighting amongst themselves about who their leader should be, they have ignored the real problems facing families, failed to tackle huge profiteering by energy companies, failed to get a grip on runaway inflation and failed to offer real help for a cost-of-living crisis made in Downing Street.”
The candidates for the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have yet to be confirmed.
