Emily Frith will fight for the hotly contested constituency

A charity campaigner has been picked as the Liberal Democrat’s parliamentary candidate for the Hampstead and Kilburn seat.

Emily Frith will fight it out for the hotly contested constituency which Labour’s Glenda Jackson retained with a majority of just 42 in 2010.

Ms Jackson, a former Oscar-winning actress, will step down at the next General Election which is expected to take play in 2015.

The Labour Party and the Conservatives have yet to announce a chosen candidate for the seat.

Ms Frith, who crusades for a prison reform charity and a dyslexia charity, was chosen at a packed hustings in Belsize Library yesterday (Tuesday).

The mother-of-two, who enjoys cookery and the theatre, said: “I am delighted to be chosen to represent the Liberal Democrats in Hampstead and Kilburn.

“There is everything to play for here in this, the closest three way marginal in the country. We are campaigning to win.

“I will fight for the credible economic plan Labour cannot deliver and the fairness in Government the Conservatives won’t deliver.”

Ms Frith has previously worked as a national campaigner and health advisor in the Liberal Democrats’ central policy and research unit for four years in which she supported the party’s shadow cabinet on strategy, policy and media relations.

She has also led policy and press teams for a national charity which works with people with complex needs like drug or mental health problems or a learning disability.

Paying tribute to her party colleague Ed Fordham who ran for the seat in 2010, she added: “I am looking forward to continuing Ed Fordham’s great work in engaging with local communities and I am putting myself forward as an MP who can reflect the unique character of Hampstead and Kilburn.”