30-year-old Craig Piper was selected on Monday night to fight Caerphilly at the next general election.
Craig grew up in Devon where he joined the party aged 17, but for the last eight years he has lived in Cardiff. He works in training and development for the Lloyds TSB Group but has also been a councillor in Cardiff since 2004, representing the Llanishen ward. He contested Cardiff Central at the 2003 Welsh Assembly election, but this is the first time he as stood for Parliament - indeed this was the first seat he applied for.
Caerphilly has elected a Labour MP at every election since the seat was created in 1918. The current incumbent is Wales Office minister Wayne David, who has represented the seat since Ron Davies stepped down in 2001. Labour's majority at the 2005 election was 15,359, although boundary changes will shave a couple of thousand votes off that in terms of the notional majority that he will have to defend. As such, Craig would require a swing to the Tories from Labour of a little over 20% to take the seat from third place.