General Election 2019: a guide to recent votes in High Peak

In the last general election, held in June 2017, it elected a Labour MP, with 49.7 per cent of the vote – ahead of the Conservatives with 45.4 per cent and the Lib Dems with five per cent.

This contrasted with the picture in the European Parliament elections this May, the most recent occasion on which the country went to the polls, when the Brexit Party took 31.9 per cent of the vote in High Peak’s local authority area, the largest share.

The Lib Dems finished second, with 21.6 per cent, and the Greens third with 16.4 per cent.

The East Midlands – the EU constituency in which High Peak lies – returned three Brexit Party MEPs, one Labour and one Liberal Democrat to Brussels in May.

Turnout was, however, much lower in those elections – while 73.5 per cent of the electorate came out to vote across the High Peak constituency in 2017, just 38.8 per cent did in the local authority for the European Parliament elections this year.

Both those turnouts, however, were beaten by that for the referendum on the topic which will dominate December’s general election: Brexit.

The Brexit referendum in 2016 brought more voters to the polls across the UK than any referendum or general election in 24 years. In High Peak, 75.7 per cent of the electorate voted, with a small majority in favour of leaving the EU, with 50.5 per cent of the vote.

In the most recent local elections in May, Labour took overall control of High Peak Borough Council from the Conservatives, winning 22 of the 43 seats available.