Simon Hughes to fight next general election

First elected to Parliament in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election, Hughes has fought six general election campaigns as the sitting MP.

On Wednesday he told delegates at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton that he plans to fight a seventh general election in the constituency under its new name of Old Southwark and Bermondsey.

Hughes, who is federal president of the Liberal Democrats, also presented a special award to Stan Hardy, president of the North Southwark and Bermondsey constituency party, for sixty years' service to the Liberal cause.

Hughes was elected party president in 2004 and he plans to serve a second term in that role.

He has fought two unsuccessful campaigns for the leadership of his party and for the London mayoralty.