General election: Sheffield heads to the polls for second time in three months on July 4

Speculation about a summer election began in Westminster circles this morning and Mr Sunak made his announcement from a rainy Downing Street not long after 5pm.

The election date follows hard on the heels of the Sheffield City Council and South Yorkshire mayoral elections that both took place on May 2. Those elections saw Labour increase their place as the biggest party in the council, which remains under no overall control, and Oliver Coppard returned as mayor and also now police and crime commissioner.

Sheffield has five Labour MPs and one Conservative. Paul Blomfield is standing down in Sheffield Central and Labour’s candidate is Abtisam Mohamed, who stood down from Sheffield City Council before the May election.

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The sitting MPs are Labour members Louise Haigh (Sheffield Heeley), Olivia Blake (Sheffield Hallam), Gill Furniss (Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough) and Clive Betts (Sheffield South East), plus Conservative Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge).

Olivia Blake’s election result in December 2019 was by far the closest run and she beat the LibDem candidate by 712 votes.

Nationally, Labour are currently ahead in the polls but the Prime Minister is believed to have been swayed by good news on the economy as inflation has fallen recently. Before today, the Conservatives looked to have been favouring an autumn election campaign.

They have now been in office for 14 years.