STOCKSBRIDGE AND PENISTONE: Voters remain undecided with one week to go until the 2019 general election

Angela Smith had been an MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge for almost a decade before leaving the Labour Party and becoming a founding member of Change UK and is now running to be a Liberal Democrat MP in Altrincham and Sale West.

All this change has now left the constituency, which is located on the edge of Sheffield, as a bit of a general election wildcard.

With just one week to go until polling day, some out on the streets still did not know who they are going to vote for, with many feeling uninspired and let down by politicians.

Stocksbridge resident John Langston said: “I’ve not got a lot of confidence in the politicians we’ve got so I’m really stuck for a party to vote for. I think the standard of politicians at the front now are pretty poor to what we’ve had in the past.

“I certainly won’t vote Conservative, I would’ve probably voted for the Liberal Democrats but I don’t think they can just revoke Article 50.

“I’ll probably end up voting for Labour.

“But I’m not happy with the people leading the party.

“Certainly no one inspires me with a lot of confidence but I do think Labour have still got good politicians who aren’t at cabinet level.”

His wife added: “If there was an option on the voting paper to put ‘none of these’ I’d go for that.”

Some said they were left feeling angry and betrayed when their MP of nine years swapped parties and is now leaving the area.

Grant Hudson, from Stocksbridge, said: “I think this constituency in particular is really angry about Angela Smith. People are really annoyed about that.

“There’s a feeling they may even vote Conservative because 61 per cent of people in this area voted Leave but the MP was a Remainer so I think they’ll probably lean towards the Conservatives.

“I don’t particularly like Boris Johnson as a person, I think he’s a bit devious.

“He’s very intelligent but he’s also not very ethical as a person but I do think he’s got his finger on the pulse of where a lot of people are wanting to go. I just want this Brexit business done with so we can move on and get on with our lives.”

Many constituents said Brexit was a key issue for them in this general election with some basing their vote on where parties stood.

Trevor Pettitt, from Chapeltown, said for the first time in his life he was going to vote Conservative to ‘get Brexit out of the way’.

He said: “I think the biggest problem we’ve got at the moment is the indecision of our MPs to do what the public says. The fact is they did have a referendum and the onus was on the MPs to follow what the public said but their careers are involved now and they’ve all gone their own way. It upset me and most of the people who voted for it so I live in hope the people that went against their constituents never get in again.”

Candidates:

John Booker - The Brexit Party

Miriam Cates - Conservative

Francyne Johnson - Labour

Hannah Kitching - Liberal Democrats