A LONDON barrister has been selected by the Labour Party in Bolton to fight for MP Brian Iddon's seat when he steps down ahead of the next general election.

Yasmin Qureshi will contest the Bolton South East seat constituency when Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls the nation to the polls.

Ms Qureshi, aged 44, was selected yesterday after a long process which involved more than 50 candidates.

If elected, she would become the first Asian woman in Parliament, a challenge she says she will relish, along with continuing the work of Dr Iddon.

Pakistan-born Ms Qureshi, who moved to England at the age of nine, said: "I'm absolutely delighted to have been selected and am now looking forward to working really hard on local issues, such as education, health, crime and youth issues, and taking up the mantle where Brian left off.

"It's very important that Parliament should be representative of the country as a whole and there is a need for ethnic minority women, and especially Asian women, to have a voice in Parliament."

She will now shadow Dr Iddon until the election.

A total of 53 people put their names forward for the seat, which is considered to be a Labour stronghold after Dr Iddon secured a majority of more than 11,000 votes two years ago. A shortlist of six candidates was drawn up.

The constituency's 250 members chose Ms Qureshi, who currently lives in Watford, but is already house hunting in Bolton, at the selection meeting at Dixon Green Labour Club.

About half of the members elected to vote by post, but the remainder made their choice in a secret ballot, ranking each candidate in order of preference.

The candidate with the least first-choice votes after each round of voting was eliminated.

First to be knocked out was Altrincham vet Richard Jackson followed by Bolton councillor Akhtar Zaman, trade union organiser Julie Hilling and Hackney councillor Nargis Khan. In second place was constituency chairman, Kevin Meagher.

Ms Qureshi won by a margin of 17 votes.

Dr Iddon said: "There was a very good final shortlist and any of the people on it could have done the job. I have always said I would work closely with whoever got selected."