RICHMOND Conservatives will this weekend choose their candidate to fight the seat vacated by their MP William Hague.

The Richmond Conservative Association will hold a selection meeting at Tennants auction house in Leyburn on Saturday afternoon to pick the person to stand in one of the safest Tory seats in the country.

Mr Hague, who has represented the North Yorkshire constituency for 26 years, announced earlier this year that he was to stand down at the general election next year.

The association will interview four candidates. They are:

Wendy Morton: Former chairman of the Richmond Conservative Association and Richmondshire District councillor. She has previously fought the marginal seat of Tynemouth at the 2010 General Election, She is vice chairman of the Conservative Party for Social Action.

Cllr Robert Light: Leader of the Conservative group on Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire and former council leader. A Commissioner at the Audit Commission and deputy chairman of the Environment Agency. He also runs a farming and equestrian business.

Chris Brannigan: a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, with whom he served on eleven operational tours. In 2012, he was shortlisted to be the Conservative candidate for Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner. He is manager of an art gallery.

Rishi Sunak: a businessman who co-founded a multinational investment firm. He now invests in small and fast-growing British businesses. Mr Sunak is a governor of the East London Science School. An Oxford graduate, he did an MBA at Stanford University in the US, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.

Ron Kirk, chairman of the Richmond Conservative Association, said the shortlist was varied and very strong. It had been reduced from a long list of 14 last weekend.

He added that every paid-up member of the association was entitled to vote at the selection meeting which starts at 1pm and is expected to last several hours.

Mr Hague, who stood down as Foreign Secretary in July to be come Leader of the House in preparation for his retirement from the Commons, is expected to attend the meeting in Leyburn to endorse the chosen candidate.