Sheffield Hallam: ‘Can Labour’s Olivia Blake hold on in Nick Clegg’s old seat?’

If polling is to be believed (and given that postal votes are already dropping, it should be), Labour is heading for government. I’ve been visiting marginal seats around the country, and in all of them I’ve found candidates and activists who were hard at work, but fairly optimistic about winning.

Every constituency is its own story, however. Not all will conform to national trends. For every Tory 2019 landslide, there’s a trend-bucking defeat in Putney. Now that a likely Labour landslide is on the cards, we’ll have our own Putneys.

One of them could come in Sheffield Hallam. Labour’s Olivia Blake is hoping to retain the seat, but faces a serious challenge from the Liberal Democrats in of their few Labour-held targets – and a seat previously held by their former leader Nick Clegg.

I spent three days pounding the leafy pavements for Blake in Hallam, and found a local party which seemed far less worried than I might have expected. Running five sessions a day, the campaign was consistently turning out more activists to canvas than I’ve seen in any other constituency I’ve visited this election.

READ MORE: Could Labour take ‘non-battleground’ Tory seats across the South West?

“I feel pretty optimistic,” one local activist told me, before adding: “I don’t think there’s any reason to be complacent because there’s a silent, but strong Liberal Democrat support here.”

The biggest houses I’ve ever canvassed

Hallam has a colourful recent history. Taking in suburbs, a sizeable student vote and the edge of the Peak District, it was where Clegg was famously Portillo’d in 2017, losing unexpectedly to Labour’s Jared O’Mara.

O’Mara, by turn, became one of the great cautionary tales about candidate selection: he was subsequently imprisoned for fraud, relating to expenses claims made as an MP. Olivia Blake, who had been a councillor since 2014 and served as deputy leader of the council, was selected as Labour’s candidate in the seat in 2019, and held it with a majority of 712.

Despite the slim majority and Liberal Democrat threat, Blake is relaxed when I speak to her between canvassing sessions in her constituency office.

“I think everything is going as well as it could be really,” she says. “We’re feeling pretty confident in our campaign, but not taking anything for granted. I want to speak to as many people as possible.”

READ MORE: Meet NHS doctor Zubir Ahmed, fighting one of Scotland’s tightest marginals

While ‘confident but not complacent’ has become Labour’s standard line at this election, Hallam isn’t like most of the contests Labour candidates will have on the 4th of July: the Liberal Democrats, Blake tells me, are “a different beast to the Tories to campaign against.”

Hallam, by and large and with some areas that are exceptions, is a wealthy place. Property ownership rates stand at 79%; just 1.4% of households are classed as severely deprived.

Fullwood ward, peppered with both Labour and Lib Dem yard stakes, has some of the biggest houses I have ever canvassed.  In the late 19^th century, this was where Sheffield steelwork owners had their houses, upwind of the factories.

But it’s a particular kind of wealth: many of the people who live here are drawn from the upper pay scales of the public sector.

Public sector workers angered by Lib Dem role in austerity

This meant, I am told, that the people who live here, while far from badly off, did feel real-terms impacts from austerity in their earnings. The dissatisfaction this bred, coupled with anger over Brexit, came home to roost in 2017, when Labour unseated Clegg in a shock result.

Some people I’ve spoken to also credit the 2015 campaign to elect Oliver Coppard, now mayor of South Yorkshire, with laying strong foundations for Labour to win two years later: Coppard fell short by 2,353 votes.

“Some people remember Nick Clegg fondly as a good constituency MP,” Blake tells me. “Other people are still very angry about the coalition years, and the enabling role they played in austerity, and the impacts that’s had on their jobs, or their families, or their livelihoods…I don’t think people have forgotten the role that the Lib Dems played.”

READ MORE: Meet NHS doctor Zubir Ahmed, fighting one of Scotland’s tightest marginals

One issue that comes up on the doorstep several times is the crisis in higher education. “We represent quite a lot of academics and non-academic university staff here,” Blake says, highlighting the strain changes to work visa policies have put on the universities and the recent announcement of redundancies at Sheffield Hallam University.

“There’s a lot of pressure on our universities at the moment, and any future Labour government really needs to tackle that issue head on, and make sure the support is there for those incredibly important institutions, for research and the economy as much as education”, Blake says.

The environment is a key issue for voters

While the Lib Dems are the main competition, I also speak to several people whose intention is to vote Green. One man tells me he is tired of always voting tactically, and the Greens put in a respectable performance at the local elections. Blake says that while there is a Green presence, “I think I have got quite a good reputation for championing green issues.”  She hopes this will win over potential Green voters.

Blake, a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, has been a notable advocate of the Climate and Ecology Bill, calling for Labour to “lead from the front” on the issue in a 2023 article for LabourList.

Nabeela Mowlana, a Sheffield city councillor out campaigning for Blake, tells me that  “increasing inequalities, NHS waiting times, [and] climate change” are the issues coming up most on the doorstep. But she also says “Olivia has been such an active local MP”, which makes it “easy to talk to voters on her track record.”

READ MORE: Labour wants a new generation of new towns. Can it win in Milton Keynes?

Also out knocking doors for Blake is Stanley Amies, the co-chair of Sheffield Labour Students.

“Our Labour Club has been canvassing all over South Yorkshire, but Olivia’s progressive track record has made her especially popular amongst students. Over the course of the academic year she’s energised many of us to become first-time canvassers.”

Mixed polls and a tough fight

Despite the positive attitudes and organised campaign, Hallam is still a tough fight: some polls over the last few days have predicted a Labour hold and some a Liberal Democrat gain.

The opposition’s message, Blake tells me, has shifted in the 15 years she’s been campaigning in the seat. “Their messaging previously would be, vote for us to keep the Conservatives out, and that’s kind of been flipped on its head now that we have a Labour MP, so it’s vote for us to keep Labour out… that’s on every single leaflet they’re putting out.”

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Best for Britain is encouraging a tactical vote for Blake; if she’s elected again, her “main focus will be climate… I want to see a Labour government doing the right thing on that and pursuing a green agenda”.

”It’s a great seat to represent, and I hope I get another five years to do some good – under Labour!”

Read more of our 2024 general election coverage:

Could Labour take ‘non-battleground’ Tory seats across the South West?

Meet NHS doctor Zubir Ahmed, fighting one of Scotland’s tightest marginals

Brighton Pavilion: As Starmer visits, can Labour win the Greens’ one seat?

Labour wants a new generation of new towns. Can it win in Milton Keynes?

Meet Gordon McKee, the 29-year-old son of a welder vying for Glasgow South

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