South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt has been shortlisted for the ePolitix.com Charity Champion Awards 2006 – Disability Champion. These prestigious awards honour the hard work done by Parliamentarians on behalf of voluntary causes and campaigns. To be eligible for an award MPs and Peers have to be nominated by a charity for their good work during the year.Jeremy said he felt honoured to have been nominated by the Multiple Sclerosis Society.He said: ""This was an award which David Cameron has won in previous years and is very well respected among Parliamentarians. It is a great honour to have been even nominated.""The other nominees have achieved an awful lot for disabled people so I am under no illusion that this won’t be anything but a very tough category.""In their nomination, the MS Society said:""Jeremy has a passionate commitment to equality issues and is using his shadow ministerial role to campaign for a better deal for carers – often of people with long-term and fluctuating conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, and for parents of severely disabled children. He is taking a leading role at Westminster, working with all parties and interest groups to ensure that the welfare-reform legislation is as good as it possibly can be for the disabled people it is intended to help.""To this end, we are extremely grateful that Jeremy has been our champion in Parliament, using all parliamentary devices and procedures to ensure that the legislation caters for the needs of people with long-term, fluctuating conditions, sometimes with hidden symptoms – both in the workplace and in regard to a highly complex benefit system, which is in urgent need of simplification. Working closely with David Cameron, Jeremy is devising a Conservative disability policy that promotes inclusion and equality, and he has been keen to inform his thinking by consulting key stakeholders – especially the voluntary sector. To this effect, he has hosted five seminars at Westminster on a ‘listen and learn’, rather than a didactic basis.""Politicians are often strong on talk and short on action. The MS Society has found Jeremy is strong on both – a worthy champion of the considerable disability constituency and, we hope, a well-deserved winner of this award.""MPs and Peers will now vote from a shortlist of just 4 names. The winner for all 11 categories will be announced at a VIP awards ceremony on November 29th in London. Third Sector Minister, Hilary Armstrong announced the shortlist. Paul Adeleke, ePolitix.com Head of Communications said: ""There is often much cynicism aimed at Parliamentarians and the work that they do – so it is great to see such a positive aspect of their contribution acknowledged by so many good causes. To some members of the electorate it’s fair to say that this less publicised but more altruistic aspect of MPs and Peers work might even come as something of a shock.""NOMINEES FOR DISABILITY CHAMPION Danny Alexander MP Ed Balls MP Angela Browning MP Jeremy Hunt MP