Battleground Yorkshire: A new election series from The Yorkshire Post

Our Battleground Yorkshire series has run a month-long analysis of the data on Yorkshire’s 54 seats which has revealed the areas facing the full force of failing policies, from crime and housing to health and farming.

Over the next 12 weeks, the paper will profile 12 constituencies which represent some of the biggest issues facing voters, and speak to the candidates hoping to be their next champion in Westminster.

Every Thursday our Westminster Correspondent will speak to candidates running at the next election for each battleground seat in our political podcast Pod’s Own Country, and speak to experts who will dissect the big issue of the week.

Our weekend edition of the paper will feature interviews and analysis on each constituency, with extra content for Yorkshire Post subscribers.

The seats, representing the North, South, East and West of the region’s towns, cities and rural villages are currently represented by 6 Conservatives and 6 Labour MPs, but all 12 are within reach of Sir Keir Starmer’s party, according to experts.

According to current polling, the majority of Yorkshire would be represented by the governing party for the first time in almost 15 years.

Analysis of prospective candidates against current polling suggests that the region will be represented by around 23 women and 29 men, with more candidates yet to be selected.

Some 17 of these will become MPs for the first time, while previous candidates such as John Grogan and Nic Dakin will try to win back their former seats.

Among them will be 6 cabinet ministers, two of which will hold one of the great offices of state, with Rachel Reeves set to be the Chancellor and Yvette Cooper as Home Secretary.

The region last saw 6 Yorkshire MPs in the cabinet in 2008 under Gordon Brown, with three of their number, Ed Miliband, Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn set to return to government following the election.

The upcoming local elections in May will give an indication of how much the Conservatives’ North Yorkshire heartlands are under threat, with the county electing its first mayor to lead the new combined authority.

Meanwhile, Sheffield’s city council elections will give an insight into whether the Liberal Democrats can win one of two target seats at the next election.

Both Sheffield Hallam and Harrogate and Knaresborough are targets for the party which currently has no MPs in the region, with both potential gains under current polling.

Writing for The Yorkshire Post, Sir Ed Davey, the party’s leader said the Lib Dems have made “some fantastic progress across” in recent years but know that there is “still much work to do to offer the change that people across the country are desperately crying out for.”

Meanwhile Green Party’s co-leader, Carla Denyer, called on Yorkshire’s voters to “send the clearest possible message to whoever forms the next government that they want to see a fairer, greener country” in her own opinion piece for today’s paper.