THE FIRST candidates confirmed to be standing for the Cardiff South and Penarth seat in the General Election next month have been announced.

Stephen Doughty, who has served as MP for Cardiff South and Penarth since 2012, has confirmed he will be seeking re-election on June 8.

“I will be proud to stand on my record fighting for local people as the Welsh Labour and Co-operative MP for Penarth and Cardiff South,” he added.

“Since I was first elected in 2012, I have helped thousands of people locally and stood up for local community organisations, businesses and those working to make Penarth and the Vale a great place to live.”

The Conservative candidate will be Bill Rees.

Mr Rees was born and raised on a family-run dairy farm in west Wales and was the first of his family to go to University, where he studied economics at Warwick and Cambridge. Mr Rees said: “As your MP, I would use my strong Welsh roots and extensive experience of international business negotiation to get the best possible deal for Cardiff South and Penarth so that the people and businesses here can flourish.”

Ian Titherington has been selected as Plaid Cymru’s candidate for the constituency.

His sons play for both of Penarth’s rugby teams, and he is a civil engineer by profession, who worked Cardiff council.

He said: “The election has been called because of Brexit and I supported the remain campaign because I am proud to be Welsh and European.

“But I have accepted the result and we have to get the best deal for Wales.

“I am concerned with the method of negotiation and we need a constructive opposition.”

Anthony Slaughter will be standing for the Green Party.

He stood in the 2015 election and was previously the chairman of the Gwyrddio Penarth Greening community organisation. He has also been involved in the 20s Plenty campaign to reduce speeds on the town’s roads.

“My experiences as a Green Party election candidate in this area over the last five years together with my decade long involvement as a local community activist and campaigner have shown me that there is strong local support for Green ideas and policies and we are very pleased to be offering all Penarth voters the opportunity to vote Green,” he added.

Candidates for the other parties are yet to be confirmed.