JONATHAN LORD said he was ‘delighted’ to have been formally reselected as the Parliamentary candidate for Woking.

At a recent executive meeting of constituency Conservatives, including President of the Woking Party the Rt Hon Baronness Anelay of St Johns, Mr Lord was unanimously voted in for reselection as the borough’s Member of Parliament. Lady Anelay is also Chief Whip for the Conservatives and a life peer in the House of Lords.

Mr Lord said: “As a sitting Conservative MP, the procedure to put my name forward for reselection is to write to the Conservative Association Chairman – in this case Linda Kemeny.”

There is then a formal procedure to be endorsed for reselection at an executive meeting of constituency Conservatives.

The 30-strong members include the branch chairman and deputy and representatives from each ward.

Mr Lord added: “The application has to achieve a majority and I am proud to say that everyone present voted for me unanimously.

“I am now formally adopted as the Conservative candidate for the next General Election which, unless something very unusual happens beforehand, is fixed until May 2015.

“I am delighted, working hard and enjoying and finding the role very satisfying.

“To be unanimously endorsed as the Parliamentary candidate for the next election is a vote of confidence from my association and all its senior members. It is a great honour.

“As a sitting MP I don’t need to be nominated and the executive committee is able to endorse it.”

However, Mr Lord had to go through a robust vetting process before the Parliamentary Assessment Board of MPs and senior Party volunteers made the final decision about whether to add his name to the approved list of candidates in 2009, from which were about 400 Woking Conservative applications.

At the 2010 General Election, when all constituencies become vacant, Jonathan Lord was the elected candidate for Woking. Since then, while some have been in their respective roles for many years and never procured an act of Parliament, during his first term as Woking MP, Mr Lord secured the Sports Ground Safety Authority Act 2011.

The Football Spectators’ Act had been introduced in 1989 to ensure safety following the tragic Hillsborough disaster.

But under the Football Licensing Authority, it only applied to football grounds and by law the authority weren’t allowed to advise on other sports.

More than 30 years on, with the Olympics looming, Mr Lord thought that with the football authority’s long and wide spread experience, the remit should be updated and extended to cover all sporting events.

His Sports Ground Safety Authority Act 2011 was passed just in time for all the final preparations of the Olympics.

Currently going through Parliament and looking ready to be rolled out is Mr Lord’s latest proposal, which last month passed its second reading in the House of Commons.

He put forward a bill to build on the Armed Forces Covenant by amending the British Nationality Act 1981 to ensure that foreign and Commonwealth nationals in the military who wish to apply for British citizenship are not disadvantaged because of time served overseas. Mr Lord is hoping the bill will progress this year. He added: “I have asked the Rt Hon Lord Trefgarne, who lives in Horsell, to take it through the House of Lords for me. It will be a bill made in Woking.

“It is always a great privilege to bring forward a Private Member’s Bill that ends up on the Statute Book.”

Mr Lord MP celebrated his reselection with some local Conservative Party members at a fundraising fish ’n’ chip supper in Knaphill on Friday.