Richard Shepherd may be retiring, but the bookies are predicting the Conservatives’ 36-year hold on the Aldridge-Brownhills seat will continue after 2015.

Shepherd secured the seat from Labour in 1979 and has never looked back since but announced last year he was returning after the next General Election.

The Tories are 25/1 on to hold the seat, despite being yet to name the candidate.

UKIP’s Paul White is the second favourite, at 8/1 while Labour’s John Fisher and the Liberal Democrats are each considered 100/1 outsiders by Ladbrokes.

Sir Richard, who was knighted in 2013, has a reputation as an independently-minded backbencher who is willing to defy the party leadership.

He is also a strong defender of Parliament’s right to hold the Government to account, and a defender of civil liberties.

In the 1990s he clashed with Conservative Prime Minister John Major, and had the whip withdrawn - a punishment imposed by the leadership - for rebelling in House of Commons votes about the European Union.

He also clashed with Margaret Thatcher, when she was Prime Minister, over his attempts to change the Official Secrets Act so that people could not be prosecuted for revealing information which exposed misconduct by people in authority.

All odds are subject to change and were correct at the time this story was written.

We have used all photographs we were able to find from our archives and sourcing online.