Dancing much scarier than politics for 'clumsy' David Seymour

Self-proclaimed "clumsy" David Seymour fears dancing more than door-knocking during an election campaign - so he'd better get practising.

The Epsom MP, announced on Thursday as one of the competitors for Three's Dancing with the Stars, told The AM Show it could all go "terribly wrong".

"I was accused of dancing once but I was just trying to make my way to the other side of the pub.

"A good Māori mate of mine back at uni saw me trying to dance and he said, 'bro, no wonder you're white'.

"But I like a challenge."

Politicians, he says, often lose track of their health - so a vigorous training regime "is probably not the worst thing".

"One of the things you notice about parliament is as the term goes on from election to election, the average politician weight goes up. It's not a healthy lifestyle.

"It's just a disciplined way of doing it because I'll be so terrified.

"I can do the politics, you know. That's my day job. But the fact that it's going to be me out there being clumsy, trying to be elegant in front of a big audience of people is actually terrifying."

Mr Seymour reckons he's "perfectly positioned" to win most improved and was disappointed to hear that's not a part of the show.

But no matter the outcome, he says he's doing it for a good cause.

"People might say, who is this buffoon and why is he doing this when he should be working as a politician?

"On the other hand, they might say good on this guy for giving it a go, great charity to raise money for and good on him."

Mr Seymour's chosen charity is Kidsline.

The competitive dancing show will be hosted by Edge afternoons host Sharyn Casey and face of Family Feud, Dai Henwood.

Newshub.