A TRIO of women will compete to take on Bradford West MP George Galloway in this year's General Election.

Councillor Naveeda Ikram, a former Lord Mayor of Bradford, charity boss Naz Shah and Londoner Amina Ali are all hoping to become Labour's candidate for the seat, which the Respect leader enjoyed a shock win in a by-election in 2012.

The women will now go head-to-head at a hustings on February 21.

Mr Galloway said he was "quietly confident" he would beat any Labour candidate.

Cllr Ikram (Little Horton), who was the UK's first Muslim female Lord Mayor, said she was delighted to have made the shortlist and felt she was a strong contender.

She said: "I am probably one of the most experienced female councillors on the council, I have been a Lord Mayor and I have got a good network across the community."

Cllr Ikram, who works for Pakistan International Airlines, said she was taking a career break as she focused on the Bradford West candidacy.

And she said she was very pleased the regional Labour party had decided to have an all-women shortlist for the seat.

She said: "It was through an all-women shortlist that I became a councillor ten years ago."

Naz Shah is the chairman of mental health charity Sharing Voices Bradford, but is perhaps better known locally as the campaigning daughter of Zoora Shah, who was jailed in 1993 for poisoning her tormentor Mohammed Azam with arsenic, and later released early.

Naz Shah also won a landmark whistleblowing tribunal in 2011 after suspecting fraud in a local government association.

Yesterday, she declined to comment on making the shortlist, saying: "It would be unfair on whoever makes the final decision to make any comment until after the process has been completed, because we are in a process."

Amina Ali is a councillor in Tower Hamlets, London - the district which includes the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency held by Mr Galloway from 2005 to 2010.

She was unavailable for comment yesterday, but took to Twitter to say: "Really honoured to be on shortlist for Bradford West with two great Labour sisters."

Local lawyer Nasreen Karim, who failed to make the shortlist, said she had been told it was because she was not a party member.

Those also hoping to take on Mr Galloway in this year's elections include George Grant for the Conservatives, Alun Griffiths for the Liberal Democrats, Mohammed 'Harry' Boota for Ukip and Celia Hickson for the Greens.