Political

Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidates

Here’s the list of the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) for the next general election who have been publicly announced so far. If you’d like to help them, a great way to start is by joining the party.

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You can jump to the constituency you want:
A-D / E-H / I-L / M-P / Q-T / U-Z

Liberal Democrat PPCs A-D

Liberal Democrat PPCs E-H

Liberal Democrat PPCs I-L

Liberal Democrat PPCs M-P

Liberal Democrat PPCs Q-T

Liberal Democrat PPCs U-Z

After a list of current Liberal Democrat MPs? That’s here.

Interested in becoming a candidate yourself? Take a look at this inside story.

What is a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC)?

An introduction to the Liberal Democrats

Find out more about the party here more

Before an election, candidates are often called Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) rather than just simple candidates. Here’s why…

Way back, the law around election expenses made it very advantageous to avoid officially declaring someone to be your candidate until a few weeks out from polling day. Doing so delayed the point at which campaigning costs had to count against the fixed constituency election expense limit. The later the limit started, the more campaigning you could get in beforehand and then the more campaigning per day you could do during the controlled period as the limit had to stretch over fewer days of campaigning.

As a result, all parties took to using the phrase “Prospective Parliamentary Candidate” or PPC to describe the people they had selected who were going to become their candidate but had been selected sufficiently far in advance that they didn’t want to be called candidates yet. There was then usually an official adoption meeting much closer to the election at which the PPC would be adopted from a field of one and transformed into an official candidate.

These days, there is much less benefit from going through these legal hoops. That’s partly because the variation in time period which your constituency expense limit has to cover depending on when you start calling yourself a candidate has been greatly reduced. It’s also because there is now so much that can be legally excluded from constituency expense limits.

The PPC phrase, however, hangs on both out of habit and because in some very close contests it can still bring some value. It also helps distinguish between someone who has been through the party’s approval process and so is eligible to apply to be a PPC (often called ‘approved candidates’) and someone who is actually a PPC.

35 responses to “Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidates”

  1. Mark, you have an extra letter (i) in Ealing Central and Acton (action)! which would make the candidate Ealing action man.

    Reply

  5. You haven’t got Angus MacDonald listed for the new Inverness-shire constituency. Any news on Argyll and South Lochaber?

    Reply

  7. Hi.
    Because many constituencies are changing their boundaries and even their names, some PPCs I know will no longer live in the constituency they were originally selected for – and I know that some have therefore decided to try for selection in the constituency that they will live in in future. (They wish to be properly local to their potential constituents),

    So… can someone apply for selection in another ‘new’ constituency, if they are selected as PPC for one already? Is they can and are successful, presumably they must resign from one of them?

    Reply

    • Hi Mark – depending on how much a constituency changes, a previous selection may carry over to the new seat or otherwise there’s a new selection run, and the previous PPC(s) for the old seats can run in that if they wish.

      Reply

    • Hi Victor – the party has rules for either migrating PPCs over to new seats or running a new selection depending on how much a seat has changed. I’ll be updating this list as selections move over to being for new seats.

      Reply

  9. Sorry – just a typo and missing link:
    The link for Warwick and Leamington: Louis Adam doesn’t work, and
    Manuela Perteghella entry, line 2: Stratdford-on-Avon.

    Reply

  10. Hi Mark,

    Could you provide clarity on the candidate for Ellesmere? Ellesmere Port and Neston won’t exist as a constituency at the next election.

    Thanks.

    Reply

    • Hi Greg – some of the candidates were selected before the boundary changes were confirmed. The list is being updated as those older selections are migrated over to the new boundaries.

      Reply

    • It varies because, for example, sometimes the person and local party want to hold off publicising the news until they’ve done a local launch for the press. By all means drop me an email if you’re wondering about a possible missing name.

      Reply

  12. Sarah Dyke is moving to the new constituency on the west of the old Somerton and Frome. Any news on who is standing in the new Frome constituency?

    Reply

  14. When will all be prospective Liberal Democrat candidates be announced? I am particularly interested in Hull (east) since that are is my constituency, I do hope the Liberal Democrats put a candidate there, especially since me and a lot of friends are planning to vote for the Lib Dems, including most (maybe all) of my politics class in college.

    Reply

  15. Mark you have Makerfield listed twice with different candidates (one was the 2019 candidate I believe).
    Also Mid Derbyshire, Barry Holliday is spelt with l twice I think, you only have 1 (as in vacation).
    Keep up the excellent work, thanks, Trevor

    Reply

  17. Shouldn’t Sarah Dyke should just be listed as Glastonbury and Somerton, not Somerton and Frome as well now?

    Reply

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