General Election 2017: Shropshire and Mid Wales MPs plan to fight for seats again

Philip Dunne has already been selected as the Conservative candidate for Ludlow, while Mark Pritchard, Lucy Allan, Daniel Kawczynski and Owen Paterson have also declared that they hope to stand again.

Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies, who said he would not stand for election if his seat was broken up, has also said he plans to fight the election as his seat will not be affected by proposed boundary changes for this year's poll.

The election campaign will formally be announced on May 3, with the dissolution of parliament. A proclamation will be made announcing when Parliament will next meet after the election, setting the date of the Queen's Speech at the state opening.

All eyes will be on the Telford constituency, where Ms Allan pulled off a shock victory two years ago to become Telford's first Conservative MP. Ms Allan took the seat with a slim majority of 730 in 2015, ousting Labour MP David Wright who had held the seat for 14 years.

The Wrekin Conservative Association will officially announce its candidate at next Tuesday, with Mr Pritchard, who has represented the constituency since 2005, hoping to stand once more. He increased his majority to 10,743 in 2015, pushing Labour's Katrina Gilman in to second place.

Health minister Mr Dunne, who has been Ludlow MP since 2005, was announced as candidate by Ludlow Conservative Association on Friday and began his campaign at the weekend. "I have been knocking on doors on Saturday, meeting the public, and will be campaigning across the constituency until June 8," he said.

Mr Dunne secured a 18,929 majority at the 2015 General Election, beating Ukip's David Kelly into second place.

Mr Paterson, who announced his intention to stand once more immediately after the election was called, is expected to be formally adopted as the Conservative candidate for North Shropshire at a meeting on Friday night.

The former cabinet minister, who succeeded fellow Tory John Biffen in 1997, had a 16,584 majority over Labour's John Currie in 2015. He said: "The election will be a great opportunity for the Government to get a clear endorsement for its agenda."

Daniel Kawczynski, who has represented Shrewsbury and Atcham for the past 12 years, also said he planned to contest the seat once more.

If reselected, he will be defending a majority of 9,565, having beaten Labour's Laura Davies into second place at the last election.

Councillor Alan Mosley, spokesman for Shrewsbury and Atcham Constituency Labour Party, expected to announce a candidate this week.

"The applications are in, these are now being considered carefully, and hopefully there will be an announcement in the next couple of days," he said.

Mr Davies, who has held Montgomeryshire for the Conservatives since 2010, said he also planned to stand again. His constituency had been due to disappear in 2018 under proposed boundary changes, but this year's election will be held under the existing seats.

The announcement will be made at a meeting of Montgomeryshire Conservative Association at 7pm on Friday.

He said: "I have fought a lot of campaigns, but I am looking forward to this one more than ever."

His predecessor as Montgomeryshire MP, high-profile Liberal Democrat Lemit Opik, recently told the Shropshire Star he had no plans to return to front-line politics at the moment.