THE GENERAL election campaign is under way – battle buses are on the road, policies are being debated over and windows and lawns across Solihull are a sea of colour as residents start to back their favourite.
The Conservatives have dominated the borough in the past three elections with Julian Knight holding the Solihull seat since 2015 and Saqib Bhatti securing the seat in 2019 after Dame Caroline Spelman stepped down.
In recent months Solihull MP Julian Knight sat in the House of Commons as an Independent after having the Conservative whip removed.
However, things will look a bit different this time, with Solihull being divided up after the Boundary Commission was tasked to redraw constituency lines.
The borough will now be represented by three MPs – Solihull West and Shirley, Meriden and Solihull East and Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North.
The deadline for candidates to declare their intention to stand is today (Friday) and the list of those nominated will be published at 5pm.
So far a number of candidates have stepped forward to say they want to represent the borough.
In a shock moved Julian Knight has declared he will be looking to retain his seat and will stand as an Independent candidate for Solihull West and Shirley.
Going up against him will be the Conservative Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst, Ade Adeyemo will be the Liberal Democrat candidate and Deirdre Fox has been selected as the Labour canididate, Shahin Ashraf is the Green Party candidate and Mary McKenna will stand for Reform UK.
For Meriden and Solihull West Saqib Bhatti has been chosen to retain his seat as the Conservative candidate.
Sunny Virk has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate, Sarah Alan is the Labour candidate, Malcolm Sedgley is the Reform UK candidate and Shesh Sheshabhatter has been selected to represent the Green Party.
In the Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North constituency Liam Byrne has been selected as the Labour candidate for the Labour Party.
Qasim Esak is the Liberal Democrat candidate and Imran Ali Khan has been selected as the Green Party candidate.
The deadline to register to vote is June 18 at 11:59pm here.
Anyone unable to vote in person can apply for a postal or proxy vote.
Apply for a postal vote by June 19 at 5pm, apply for a proxy vote (someone voting on your behalf) by June 26 at 5pm.
Voters need to make sure to take photo ID to the polling station – accepted forms of ID include a passport, driving licence or an older person’s or disabled person’s bus pass.
Anyone who doesn’t have one of these can apply for a free voter ID document, known as a Voter Authority Certificate by June 26 at 5pm.
