General Election: Names of party candidates confirmed for Halifax and Calder Valley

With the UK heading back to the polls on December 12, the deadline for parties to confirm their prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) has passed.

There are two parliamentary constituencies which are in or cross over into Calderdale: Calder Valley and Halifax.

Between them, they elected one Conservative (Craig Whittaker) and one Labour MP (Holly Lynch) in the last general election, held in June 2017.

Labour MP Holly Lynch will again stand as her party's PPC for Halifax after winning the General Election in 2017 with 25,507 votes, beating nearest her competitor by 5,376 votes.

Halifax resident MP Lynch will stand against The Conservative Party's PPC Kashif Ali.

Born and bred in Oldham, Mr Ali is a practising Barrister who works in employment and has previously worked as a law tutor at Manchester University and at the International Criminal Court.

James Baker, who lives in the Calder Valley area, will be standing for the Liberal Democrats, while Sarah Wood, who resides in Kirklees, will be Halifax's Brexit Party PCC.

The Green Party have confirmed they are standing candidate Annabella Jessop, who is also a resident in the Calder Valley area.

Calder Valley resident and Conservative MP Mr Whittaker will stand again as his party's PPC after winning the 2017 General Election with 26,790, marginally beating nearest competition Labour candidate Josh Fenton-Glynn by 609 votes.

Mr Fenton will stand again for Labour, which have the backing of the Green Party for the Calder Valley constituency.

The Liberal Democrats will be represented by Calder Valley candidate Javed Bashir, who lives in Elland.

The Liberal Party candidate for Calder Valley will be Halifax resident Richard Phillips.

The Brexit Party originally put forward Philip James, who withdrew early this month after party leader Nigel Farage confirmed his party would not stand against any current constituency with a sitting Conservative MP.

The General Election count in Calderdale - for the Calder Valley and Halifax constituencies - will take place at North Bridge Leisure Centre, on North Bridge Street.