Despite prior suggestions by Reform UK that the party may only manage to field around 520 candidates in next month’s general election, the party is standing in 609 (96%) out of the 631 constituencies in England, Wales and Scotland (excluding the Speaker’s seat of Chorley).
Research by Politics.co.uk has reviewed each of the “notice of poll” statements and statements of nominated persons that were published by the UK’s local councils after last Friday’s close of nomination deadline.
This research has found that Reform UK has only failed to nominate a candidate in 20 seats in England, 1 seat in Scotland, and 1 seat in Wales.
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Of the 22 seats where Reform UK has failed to find a candidate, some 9 of these seats are currently held by the Conservatives: Earley and Woodley, East Grinsted and Uckfield, Epping Forest, Hexham, Maidenhead, Mid Dorset and North Pool, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, and West Dorset.
This news will no doubt be a welcome boost the Conservative candidates in those particular seats.
Surprisingly Reform UK is not standing a candidate in Ed Miliband’s Doncaster North constituency. This is despite the fact that in the 2019 general election, the Brexit Party (the forerunner of Reform UK) polled 20% in Doncaster North, its fourth highest tally of votes of any seat in the UK.
During this analysis it was observed how the names of quite a large number of the Reform UK candidates, potentially approaching up to a tenth, who now appear on the public ballot are different to those that were listed on the party’s own website last week. The same is true to a lesser extent of the Green Party. This would appear to suggest that both parties have been tightening up their selections in the last two weeks.
Politics.co.uk’s analysis also reveals that Labour are standing in every seat in England, Wales and Scotland apart from the Speaker’s seat. The Conservatives had a candidate in Rotherham but this candidate now appears to have been withdrawn, meaning this is the one seat they are not now contesting. The Conservatives are also contesting 5 seats in Northern Ireland.
The Liberal Democrats appear to have failed to find a candidate in Manchester Rusholme, but are otherwise contesting every seat in England, Wales and Scotland.
The Green Party of England is contesting every seat, with the exception of Heywood and Middleton. The Welsh Greens are contesting all of Wales’ 32 seats, the Scottish Greens are contesting 44 of the 57 seats in Scotland, and the Northern Irish Greens are contesting 11 of the 18 seats in Northern Ireland.
The total number of different Green Party candidates across the UK numbers 629, a substantial increase on the 497 Green candidates that stood in the 2019 general election. Come the final reckoning, on its own, this is likely to lead to a notable increase in the Greens share of the national vote.
The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru are contesting every seat in Scotland and Wales respectively, with Alex Salmond’s Alba Party standing in 19 of Scotland’s 57 seat seats.
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