Cambridgeshire will feature some intriguing political backgrounds when the General Election is held.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confirmed that the country will go to the polls on 4 July, 2024.
Labour’s Daniel Zeichner will be confident of holding on to a safe seat in Cambridge, but elsewhere in the county the Liberal Democrats will be hoping to make some gains from the Conservatives.
Constituencies have also been revised by the Boundary Commission since the last election.
While the final set of candidates is not yet known, many parties have already declared who will be standing for them, and some individuals have also declared their intentions. Here’s who we expect to stand.
Here’s a look at some of the constituencies.
Cambridge
Daniel Zeichner will be very hopeful of another term as Labour MP - and his first with a Labour government. He was elected in 2015 with 36 per cent of the vote and a majority of 599. He was re-elected with an increased vote share of 51.9 per cent and an increased majority of 12,661. And he re-elected again in 2019, although with a slightly lower vote share of 48 per cent and a decreased majority of 9,639. Mr Zeichner’s biggest opponent is expected to be Liberal Democrat Cheney Payne, while Sarah Nicmanis will stand for the Greens and John Froggett is expected to stand for Reform. Independent David Carmona is also intending to stand, while the Conservatives have yet to declare their city candidate.
South Cambridgeshire
Liberal Democrat Pippa Heylings will be hoping to take this seat after incumbent Tory MP Anthony Browne switched to the new St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire constituency. But the district councillor will face opposition from the Conservative candidate Chris Carter-Chapman. Also standing will be Oliver Fisher for the Green Party, Harrison Edwards for Reform and Adam Augustyn for the SDP. Labour has yet to announce their candidate but the shortlisted candidates are Luke Viner and Steve King.
The constituency faces some major challenges in the coming years, with Michael Gove’s Cambridge 2050 plans, East West Rail and the Cambourne to Cambridge busway expected to be the key issues on the doorstep.
Mr Browne took 46.3 per cent of the vote when he won the seat in 2015, but it was a narrow victory with Lib Dems’ Ian Sollom coming second with 42 per cent. Third place went to Labour’s Dan Greef.
The recent Cambridgeshire and Peterborough police and crime commissioner elections also suggested this will be a tight race. Tory candidate Darryl Preston narrowly won the most votes in South Cambridgeshire, pipping Liberal Democrat Edna Murphy, while elsewhere in the county Labour’s Anna Smith was Mr Preston’s main opponent.
St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire
This is a new constituency and it could be the scene of an interesting battle, particularly between Conservative Anthony Browne - currently MP for South Cambridgeshire - and Liberal Democrat Pippa Heylings.
Some of the current South Cambridgeshire constituency, including Cambourne, features in the new constituency.
Standing against Mr Browne - who is currently a minister in the Department of Transport - will be Liberal Democrat Ian Sollom, a man who he narrowly beat in 2019 in South Cambridgeshire by 31,015 votes to 28,111.
Earlier this month, Labour confirmed its candidate for the constituency - Lambeth-brom Marianna Masters, who has been a Streatham Wells councillor since 2018.
Ely and East Cambridgeshire
Another seat with a revised boundary - and indeed a new name, with the South East Cambridgeshire seat disappearing - but this has been traditionally a safe Tory area.
Current South East Cambridgeshire MP Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, will be hopeful of holding on to the seat for the Tories, while Labour’s Elizabeth McWilliams, a Landbeach parish councillor, and Liberal Democrat Charlotte Cane, who is deputy opposition leader at East Cambridgeshire District Council, will have other ideas.
The Greens are putting forward Andrew Cogan, while Edmund Fordham is due to stand for Reform.
