The PR guru selected by the Conservatives to contest Feltham and Heston in next year's general election has said he is 'in it to win it'.

Simon Nayyar was chosen on Saturday to take on Labour incumbent Seema Malhotra for the seat next May, but he faces a battle to overturn her 6,203 majority.

However, he insists the Tories have a 'good chance' of gaining the constituency, last held by the party between 1983 and 1992.

"I absolutely think we have a very good chance, and I'm in it to win it," he told getwestlondon.

"The economy's healing and we've helped produce the right environment to create two million more jobs, 1.5 million new apprenticeships and 400,000 new businesses.

"Although Labour have a big majority in Feltham and Heston, a general election is very different to a by-election (Seema Malhotra was elected in 2011 at a by-election following the death of Labour MP Alan Keen)."

Mr Nayyar's parents lived in Bedfont, where he says many family friends still lived, and his father worked for British Airways at Heathrow.

The 47-year-old, who now lives in Notting Hill, studied at Hampton School before attending York University. He is now a managing partner at the PR firm Newgate Communications.

He helped establish the Conservative Friends of India to build links between the Conservative Party, the British Indian community and India, and is also on the board of the Conservative Friends of International Development.

Asked whether he has enough time to build support before polling day, he immediately volunteers the fact there are 233 days till the votes are cast (now 232), showing the fast-approaching deadline is clearly on his mind.

"I need to quickly put in place the infrastructure, devise the strategy and execute it to ensure there's a rigorous, really effective and relevant campaign which strikes a cord with voters around the constituency," he says with the air of a PR man plotting his latest marketing master plan.

"I can't emphasise enough the importance I attach to getting out, meeting people and understanding what's important to them."

What with building his relatively new firm and campaigning for election, he doesn't leave himself much time to unwind, but when he does get a spare moment he says he likes to indulge his taste for discovering remote parts of the world. Recent holidays have included trips to Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands.