SOUTHAMPTON Conservatives have named their prospective parliamentary candidate to fight the next general election as Jeremy Moulton.

At just 31-years-old the Southampton City Councillor is one of the youngest candidates in the country.

He beat off competition from a shortlist of five others to become the Conservative candidate for Southampton Test - the seat currently held by Labour's Alan Whitehead.

A selection panel made up of 50 Conservative party members from the Southampton Test constituency chose Cllr Moulton.

Cllr Moulton attended Southampton's King Edward VI school and Taunton's College before completing a politics degree at Exeter University.

He went on to do a masters qualification in banking and finance at Southampton University and now works for French Insurance company Axa.

Elected to Southampton City Council in 2002 he currently represents the Freemantle ward and is the cabinet member for resources where he deals with all financial issues.

To become the next Southampton Test MP Cllr Moulton will have to overthrow Mr Whitehead's 7,000 majority. The next election must be held by 2010.