The son of Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, has been selected to stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election. Liam Conlon will run to become an MP in the Beckenham and Penge constituency in south-east London in the election expected to take place in 2024. He tweeted: “Thank you everyone who supported me and engaged in this process. The past weeks have shown the incredible potential of our new local party. “Look forward to campaigning to win Beckenham and Penge together.” The seat is set to be newly created under the recent boundary review. Bob Stewart, who previously said he would step down before the next election after being found guilty of racially abusing an activist, is currently an independent MP for Beckenham. The former Conservative is understood to be appealing against his conviction. According to Jill Rutter, an associate fellow at thinktank British Future, Conlon has been active in the party for longer than his mother. Gray, who investigated parties held in Downing Street during the coronavirus lockdowns, quit her position this year as a senior civil servant to take on the job of the Labour leader’s chief of staff. Her report about lockdown breaches in government played a key role in the downfall of Boris Johnson’s premiership. Since Gray’s job change in September, she has been credited with taking a leading role in attempting to unite the party after splits emerged following Starmer’s decision not to demand a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. She is regularly seen around the parliamentary estate in Westminster, having been tasked with preparing the party – which is consistently well ahead of the Conservatives in the polls – for potentially entering No 10 after the next election. The Partygate investigation took Gray from being an influential but little-known arbiter of conduct in government to a household name within months. Her decision to leave the civil service to work for Labour irked Johnson and some Conservative MPs, who claimed a conflict of interests after her involvement in the investigation. Conlon lists himself on his website as vice-chair of Lewisham West and Penge constituency Labour party, national chair of the Labour party Irish Society and a disabilities officer at the Communication Workers Union. PA Media contributed to this report