Zac Goldsmith is standing for election again as the Richmond Park Conservative Association selects its candidate for the 2017 General Election.

Mr Goldsmith is hoping to put his 2016 electoral record, when he lost not just his parliamentary seat to Liberal Democrat newcomer Sarah Olney but also suffered a heavy defeat in the London Mayoral race to Labour’s Sadiq Khan, behind him and rebuild his politcal career.

The Brexit backing former MP stood down as a Conservative in his opposition to the party’s stance on Heathrow to run as an independent but lost his 25,000 majority to Mrs Olney’s strong remain platform last December.

Mr Goldsmith will be running against Laura Farris and Luke Parker at a special general meeting of the Richmond Park Conservative Association tonight at 7.30pm.

The vote, by secret ballot, will be the only item on the agenda at the Duke Street Church, Duke Street, Richmond.

The winner will be adopted as the Conservative candidate for Richmond Park and North Kingston with the hope of winning back the seat the party lost in December.

According to the bios published on the association’s website, Laura Farris is a leading discrimination and employment barrister and Conservative activist living in "south west London" with her husband and young daughters.

She has regularly acted for the Government and on behalf of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Her political background has led to her working for Hilary Clinton, and as a political journalist in Washington and London. She is the current Vice-Chairwoman of the Tooting Conservatives, a forums director of the Conservative Women’s Organisation and a school governor in Wandsworth.

The third candidate, Luke Parker, is described as a local activist with a strong business pedigree as IBM’s global sales strategy director. Previous political experience includes running for parliament in 2015 for the Brent North seat where he achieved “one of the few increases in the London Conservatives vote that night”.

Locally, Mr Parker ran the Conservative-In Remain campaign during the Referendum in Richmond but has since publicly supported the triggering of Article 50. He has a post-graduate diploma in strategy and innovation from Oxford University.

He now lives in Richmond with his wife and three children who attend local state schools. He helped set up the St Richard Reynolds Catholic College in the borough where he remains a foundation governor. 

Mr Goldsmith was the Richmond Park and North Kingston MP between 2010 and 2016. In the 2015 election he enjoyed the biggest increased majority of any sitting MP, growing the majority to 23,000. That dissolved last year after he resigned from the party over its pro-Heathrow plans and stood as an independent.