Luciana Berger will today become the third candidate in the race to get the Labour nomination for the Liverpool City Region Mayor election.

Berger, who attends Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Mental Health, will announce her bid with a speech to local Labour members this afternoon. She is the second shadow minister to launch their candidacy for a new directly elected mayor position in a North West city, following Andy Burnham kicking off his Greater Manchester Mayor campaign earlier this month.

This comes a day after Berger was found to have topped a LabourList readers’ survey for the Liverpool City Region Mayor.

“I have been particularly inspired by so many of the local members in my Wavertree Labour party and by the voices of young Labour members right across the region,” Berger is expected to say at her launch today.

“I have listened and after much thought and careful consideration, I have decided that I will stand to be Labour’s candidate for first metro mayor of the Liverpool city region. I am standing because I believe now is the moment when our region must choose the future.”

It is expected to be a close race in Liverpool, with Berger up against recently re-elected Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson and Liverpool Walton MP Steve Rotheram, who is also Jeremy Corbyn’s PPS. Some consider Anderson and Rotheram to have stronger ties to the region than Berger, who has been MP for Liverpool Wavertree since 2010, and that could make the selection more difficult for the frontbencher.

Around 10,000 Labour members are thought to live in the region, and will vote for the candidate later this year ahead of next May’s inaugural election.