Olympic rowing champion James Cracknell has revealed he hopes to be the Conservative candidate for Brentford and Isleworth in June's general election .

The double gold medallist has long-harboured political ambitions , and spoke to getwestlondon about his plans for a tilt at Westminster after completing the London Marathon on Sunday (April 23).

He had revealed a day earlier (April 22) on Twitter that he is being considered as a Tory candidate for the Labour-held constituency.

Among others hoping to get the Tory nod is Mary Macleod , the former Brentford and Isleworth MP who lost her seat in the 2015 general election to Ruth Cadbury by just 465 votes.

Speaking after crossing the marathon finishing line in 2hrs 43mins, the Olympic legend said: “In anything in life if you think that something should be done and you can have a positive impact on your community and the nation then you can either stand on the side and moan about it or get involved and do something about it, and I want to do the latter.

“It’s difficult, it’s a hard job and the first thing to do is convince people that I can do something other than run and row a boat.

James Cracknell has long harboured political ambitions

“I would like to [stand in Brentford]. That’s the constituency I have lived in for 15 years but its up to the members to decide and that’s the good and bad thing about politics.

“Its not controllable like sport is, that if you train and perform you’ll get the result you deserve.

“Politics is much more subjective. You have got to prove to everyone that you deserve their vote, that’s what makes democracy and political accountability very special.”

The election was called by Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday (April 18) and will take place on June 8.

Mr Cracknell ran the marathon to raise money for the RNLI and Headway, a charity dedicated to promoting understanding of all aspects of brain injury.

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