THE contest to find a replacement for Hartlebury's MP Peter Luff has been whittled down from more than 200 people to four candidates, it has emerged.

One of the UK’s leading criminal barristers, an executive at Google, a former public relations officer for the BBC and an ex-political adviser make up the quartet of top talent vying for the role.

All four of them will now take part in a US-style open primary event tonight at Pershore High School.

An audience will be invited to throw questions at them in a live format. The crowd will then get the chance to vote for their preferred candidate, a system of selection common in America but virtually unknown here.

Gerry O’Donnell, chairman of Mid-Worcestershire Conservatives, said: “In Mid-Worcestershire we want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to decide who will be our candidate in the next General Election.

“We have four excellent contenders who will face questions from the floor. The person who goes forward to represent us at the next general election will be decided by a ballot at the end of the evening in which everyone registered to attend may participate.”

The candidates forming the final four are:

  • Victoria Atkins, a Cambridge University law graduate and one of the country’s leading barristers. Based in Gloucestershire, she is one of only 30 advocates appointed to the prestigious Attorney General’s List and the serious fraud office’s list of specialist fraud prosecutors.
  • Nigel Huddlestone, a graduate of Oxford University who is now head of travel for Google, and a councillor in Hertfordshire. He stood for Luton South in the 2010 general election and is seen as one of the party’s high flyers.
  • Nusrat Ghani, a former communications worker for the BBC World Service. She helped to negotiate its funding from the Foreign Office before being posted to Afghanistan, Burma and Russia to help build independent TV and radio stations.
  • Edward Argar, from Kent, a former history graduate from Oriel College, Oxford, who went on to become a Tory party political adviser. In 2010 he was the Conservative’s parliamentary candidate in Oxford East.

Mr Luff is retiring at the 2015 General Election, and holds a 15,864 majority.