Witham MP Priti Patel has been chosen to contest the seat again at next year’s general election.

The 41-year-old was readopted as a parliamentary candidate by the Witham Constituency Conservative Association at a meeting earlier this month.

Ms Patel contested the newly created Witham seat at the 2010 election, polling 52 per cent of the 46,835 votes cast.

Her future had been cast into doubt when the Boundary Commission proposed abolishing the Witham seat as part of plans to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600.

Witham would have been merged with Braintree in a move which would have seen pre-2010 boundaries recreated.

But the constituency was given a stay of execution when the reforms were delayed due to disagreements between Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition partners.

The Labour Party candidate for Witham will not be chosen until after May’s European Parliament elections, Braintree and Witham party organiser Peter Long confirmed.

The Green Party will be standing in both Witham and Braintree, but the party has not yet chosen its candidates.