BROMSGROVE'S MP Julie Kirkbride has put motherhood before furthering what could be a glittering career in politics.

On Monday she confirmed to the Advertiser/Messenger that new party leader Iain Duncan Smith had telephoned her on Friday to offer her a "senior position" on the opposition front bench.

She declined, however, to say what role she was offered.

The 41-year-old, who voted for Kenneth Clarke to be the new leader, and, who in June, retained the Bromsgrove seat she won at the first time of asking in the 1997 General Election said it was an honour to have been asked.

"But my son Angus, who is 11-months-old comes before ambition," she said

As we highlighted last week ahead of the delayed announcement on who was to succeed William Hague, her name had been linked to a top job in the new administration.

But she hinted then that she was not prepared, at present, to put her family life on hold while she took on a demanding opposition role.

She knows better than most the strains a high profile role can impose.

Her husband Andrew MacKay had, until last week's reshuffle, been the Tory's Northern Ireland spokesman for a number of years.

Bromsgrove Conservative Associ-ation chairman Peter Jarrett, from Lydiate Ash, said he was pleased the leadership battle was now over and that under the new rules giving grass roots members a vote the poll had been close on 80 per cent.

He said he now proposed to make arrangements for local members to discuss issues which he hoped would contribute to the debate on formulating future Tory party policy.