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Summary

  • Candidates for the Sheffield Hallam constituency took part in a live debate on Friday 21 June

  • Seven parties have fielded candidates in the constituency ahead of the 4 July vote

  • The debate was hosted by ´óÏó´«Ã½ Yorkshire Political Editor James Vincent

  • Watch the video to see the stream or scroll back to read some of the key points from the debate

  • Conservative candidate Isaac Howarth was unable to attend - he was represented by Steve Winstone

  • Worker's Party candidate Mo Moui-Tabrizy was also unable to attend

Live Reporting

Written by Oli Constable, Victoria Scheer and Lucy Ashton

  1. What could we expect in this debate?

    Lucy Ashton
    ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sheffield political reporter

    Sheffield Hallam is one of the few constituencies nationwide where it is Labour and the Liberal Democrats expected to go head to head.

    Labour’s Olivia Blake won the seat in the 2019 general election but with a slim majority of just 712 votes.

    Liberal Democrat candidate Shaffaq Mohammed will hope his profile as leader of Sheffield Lib Dems and a former Yorkshire MEP will help him win crucial votes from Labour.

    Hallam was Conservative for almost 80 years until the Lib Dems took it in 1997 and the Tories have not won it since.

    One of its most famous MPs was Nick Clegg, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister.

    He held the seat in 2010 with a large majority of 15,284 but there was drama of a different kind on polling day.

    Problems at the Ranmoor polling station meant there were long queues of voters, some of who were turned away when the polls closed at 22:00 before they had been able to vote.

    Sheffield Council said the polling station had been caught out by high turnout.

    Mr Clegg was unseated in 2017 when Jared O’Mara won the seat for Labour.

    Mr O’Mara later quit the Labour Party and sat as an independent MP.

    In February 2023, he was found guilty of six counts of fraud by false representation, and was sentenced to four years in prison.

    Another party to watch is the Greens.

    They could take votes from both Labour and the Lib Dems. They won the Ecclesall ward in a shock victory in May’s local elections, snatching it from the Lib Dems who had held it for 40 years.

    Hallam is the largest constituency in Sheffield and in the 2019 general election the results were not announced until 4am after hours of counting.

    All parties are awaiting that result again this time around.

  2. Host's view on what's to come

    James Vincent
    Political Editor, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Yorkshire

    This could be a spicy one.

    There were just 712 votes in it in Sheffield Hallam in 2019.

    Labour edged across the line – beating the Lib Dems.

    But Sheffield Hallam has had Conservative, Lib Dem and Labour MPs over the last 30 years and candidates think this one is up for grabs.

    It’s one of the most affluent constituencies in our patch and quite a lot of it is rural.

    There’s a big chunk of Peak District in there as well as city centre suburbs.

    Former Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was MP here for 12 years, losing his seat in 2017 to the first Labour MP to win in Sheffield Hallam.

    Jared O’Mara, who won that night – is currently serving a prison sentence for fraud.

    An eventful constituency – hopefully an interesting debate.

  3. Welcome to our live coverage

    Good morning and welcome to today's debate for Sheffield Hallam.

    As well as keeping up to date here, you can listen on Radio Sheffield and watch via the website above.