Labour's Wigram candidate confirmed

Former Christchurch mayoralty candidate Megan Woods has been confirmed as the Labour party's candidate for the Wigram seat.

The seat has been a stronghold of Progressives leader Jim Anderton, but he doesn't intend standing next year as he is challenging for next month's Christchurch mayoralty.

Mr Anderton said recently if he won the mayoralty next month he would resign from Parliament, meaning there would be a by-election in the Wigram electorate.

Ms Woods, Labour's sole nominee, said she had grown up in Wigram and chose to live there.

"Growing up here in the 1980s, I watched people lose their jobs. I saw workplaces like the Addington Workshops shut their doors forever. Now I am 36 years old and am watching jobs disappear from our communities again."

Ms Woods, who worked for a small start-up technology company before becoming a business manager at Plant & Food Research, won 34,000 votes in the 2007 mayoralty race.

She was a Progressive Party member from 1999 to 2007 before joining Labour the same year.

- NZPA