THE race for one of Labour’s safest parliamentary seats in Merseyside has entered its final stages.

The full shortlist of candidates who will fight to win the party’s nomination for the Walton constituency – and almost certainly a seat in the House of Commons after the next general election – was revealed last night.

Former Lord Mayor of Liverpool Cllr Steve Rotheram made the list, as did Liverpool-born regeneration specialist Alun Hayes.

Three more candidates – Chris Matheson, of Warrington; Manchester councillor Sandra Bracegirdle; and London councillor Patrick Vernon – also made it through to the final round.

Candidates have been undergoing an intense interview process over the last week, with national Labour party decision-makers hopeful of picking the strongest candidate to replace outgoing MP Peter Kilfoyle, who is retiring after 19 years representing the constituency.

Mr Kilfoyle won a majority of almost 16,000 at the last general election, making it a near-certainty Labour will comfortably defend the seat at the next general election.

Cllr Rotheram, the last person to be added to the list, who represents Fazakerley ward on Liverpool Council and was the city’s Lord Mayor in 2008, said he had an agonising four-hour wait after his “Dragons’ Den-style” interview on Monday.

He said: “They said to me ‘you’ve got five minutes for your presentation and if you go on any longer we will stop you dead’. It was quite intense.

“They asked me about what I would want to see in the manifesto and then, four hours later, they said I had made it.”