Eastleigh candidates announced

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has admitted that the Chris Huhne speeding scandal will be an important issue influencing the Eastleigh by-election.

When asked if trust of the Lib Dems would be an issue, he replied:

Nick Clegg made the comments on Sky News' Sunday Live with Murnaghan.

The Liberal Democrats have announced Mike Thornton as their candidate for the Eastleigh by-election, and the Conservatives have selected Maria Hutchings as theirs.

ITV News' Libby Weiner reports:

According to a new poll released late Saturday, the Liberal Democrats remain in front in Eastleigh, spelling potential defeat for the Prime Minister.

The Survation poll for The Mail on Sunday put the Lib Dems on 36%, ahead of the Tories on 33%. The poll also put the UK Independence Party on 16%, ahead of Labour on 13%.

Survation polled 504 people in Eastleigh by telephone on Thursday.

The Conservative candidate for the Eastleigh by-election is Maria Hutchings.

She has already run for the seat once before in the 2010 general election, when she lost out to Chris Huhne by 3,864 votes.

Hutchings describes herself as a "straight-talking businesswoman and mother of four". She is running under the slogan "vote for a local MP you can trust".

In 2005, she shot to fame when she challenged the then Prime Minister Tony Blair on a live TV debate about the planned closure of a school for children with special needs.

A few weeks later, she switched from being a Labour supporter to the Conservative party.

Mike Thornton, the Liberal Democrat candidate in the Eastleigh by-election, has tweeted that it is an "incredible honour" to be selected.

The Liberal Democrats have announced local councillor Mike Thornton as their candidate for the Eastleigh by-election.

Mr Thornton is a business and development manager and has been a parish and borough councillor since 2007.

He has lived in the area for 19 years and is involved with the annual Bishopstoke Carnival and is an active member of the local church.

Read his campaign blog here.

The Liberal Democrats have selected local councillor Mike Thornton to contest the Eastleigh by-election following Chris Huhne's resignation.

Watch: Chris Huhne announces he will resign as an MP

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he decided against running in the Eastleigh by-election because he had "enough on my plate" but vowed to turn the seat into a four-way marginal fight.

Farage, who kicked off the party's campaign in Hampshire today, told ITV Meridian that Eastleigh was a "very interesting" and "fascinating" by-election.