Wolverhampton North East General Election profile: New mum Emma hopes to stay a Labour MP

Unlike many constituencies in the Black Country and Staffordshire, Wolverhampton North East has remained the same since forming in 1950.

There have been 18 elections over that time and the Labour Party has won the seat on all bar one occasion.

It is one of three constituencies covering Wolverhampton, taking in the north and north east of the city, including Bushbury, Fallings Park, Heath Town, Oxley and Wednesfield.

Emma Reynolds has held the seat since 2010. On that occasion she won with a majority of 2,484, which she went on to extend to 5,495 at the last General Election.

The seat was previously held by one of Wolverhampton’s favourite sons, Ken Purchase, who won Wolverhampton North East in spectacular fashion from Tory Maureen Hicks in 1987.

Mr Purchase held the seat until his retirement before the 2010 election.

This year Ms Reynolds, who gave birth to her first child just a few weeks before the election was announced, is back to defend the seat.

She has been an active MP since she entered Parliament and has made significant interventions on issues including schools, healthy eating, human trafficking and mental heath services.

Ms Reynolds held a number of shadow cabinet ministerial positions under Ed Miliband’s leadership.

She was shadow housing minister until shortly after the 2015 General Election, when she became shadow communities secretary, a post she resigned from when Jeremy Corbyn became party leader.

She voted Remain in the EU referendum and is a member of the cross-party Brexit Select Committee.

Conservative candidates have finished in second place in all 17 elections the party did not win in the constituency. Ukip polled almost 20 per cent of the vote at the last General Election.

The city voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU, with 62.6 per cent backing Brexit.

• Emma Reynolds is hoping to be re-elected for the Labour Party.

• This year the Tories are represented by public affairs expert Sarah Macken, who previously stood for the Pro Life Alliance in Brent East in 2001, where she polled 1.4 per cent of the vote. In 2005 she fought East Ham for the Tories, finishing third.

• UKIP have selected Graham Eardley, a fervent Brexiteer who came second to Labour’s Adrian Bailey in West Bromwich West in 2015.

• Ian Jenkins has been selected by the Lib Dems. He polled 2.7 per cent of the vote in 2015.

• The Green Party candidate is Wolverhampton resident Clive Wood.

Best Odds: Labour 10/11, Conservative Evs, Lib Dems 200/1, UKIP 250/1, Green 500/1

Prediction: Labour hold with a decreased majority

Apart from the1987 General Election, Wolverhampton North East has always returned a Labour candidate when its people have gone to the polls.

But that is not to say that this is a seat where the Conservatives are completely out of contention.

Labour’s majority is just shy of 5,000 having been as high as 12,987 back in 1997 Labour landslide.

Tory candidate Sarah Macken has said she is confident of a strong performance when Wolverhampton goes to the polls on June 8.

Her campaign in the city has been boosted by the appearance of big hitters from the Tory high command like Boris Johnson, Amber Rudd and Chris Grayling on her patch over the last few weeks, and it is no secret that CCHQ have highlighted Wolverhampton North East as a potential gain.

However, she has a tough opponent to depose in Emma Reynolds.

The election could not have come at a worse time for Ms Reynolds, who gave birth to her son Theo a few days before Theresa May called the poll.

Yet she has mounted a strong defence up to this point, and has called on a few friends of her own in the shape of Keir Starmer and Chuka Umunna to help her on the campaign trail.

After the chaos of the Tory manifesto, the party’s message of praising Theresa May and hammering Jeremy Corbyn may no longer be quite as powerful as it was a fortnight ago.