General Election 2017: Leeds marginal seat has biggest new voter surge in the country

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with Labour supporters in Leeds during a rally in the city last month.Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with Labour supporters in Leeds during a rally in the city last month.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with Labour supporters in Leeds during a rally in the city last month.
A MARGINAL Leeds constituency which includes a student heartland has seen the biggest surge in new voter registrations in the whole country.

Elector registrations in the Leeds North West constituency, which has been held since 2005 by Lib Dem Greg Mulholland, have increased by more than 16 per cent.

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The rise represents 6,000 extra voters, more than double Mr Mulholland’s current majority.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn made the Hyde Park area - which is heavily populated by students - one of his campaign stop-offs last month, attracting a crowd of thousands as he backed his party’s candidate Alex Sobel.

The Leeds Central constituency - a Labour stronghold since 1983 - has also seen a huge 13 per cent increase in new voter registrations, the fourth highest in the country. Labour grandee Hilary Benn is defending a majority of almost 18,000 in the city’s biggest voter block, which now has almost 90,000 electors.

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Other big increases across the country include Bethnal Green & Bow (15 per cent) and Poplar & Limehouse (14 per cent).

In 31 seats, the size of the electorate has gone down, with the largest drop in Banbury (down six per cent).

Nationwide, over a million voters have been added to the electoral roll in the run up to today, new figures have shown.

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A total of 46.9 million people are eligible to vote on polling day, according to Press Association data. This is up from 45.8 million in December 2016. It is also higher than the number for the 2015 General Election, which was 46.4 million.