THE PRIME Minister called for a General Election on Thursday July 4. 

Cumbrians will be asked to go to the polls to select who they want to represent the new constituencies of Carlisle, Penrith and Solway, and Whitehaven and Workington in Parliament.

Following the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, the Copeland constituency was abolished along with Copeland and the old Workington constituency.

In addition, the constituencies of Carlisle and Penrith and the Border had their boundaries changed.

In December 2019, John Stevenson was voted as the Conservative MP for Carlisle, Trudy Harrison won as the Conservative MP for Copeland, Markinson was successful as the Conservation MP for Workington and Neil Hudson was successful and the Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border.

In Carlisle the incumbent MP John Stevenson will stand as the Conservative candidate, Julie Minns has been selected as the Labour candidate, Brian Wernham will stand for the Lib Dems, Stephen Ward is the Reform UK candidate, Gavin Hawkton will stand for the Green Party and Rachel Hayton is the SDP candidate.

Mr Stevenson has held the seat since he was first elected at the 2010 general election.

In Penrith and Solway ,Mark Jenkinson will stand as the Conservative candidate, Markus Campbell Savours is the Labour candidate, Julia Aglionby has been selected by the Lib Dems, Matthew Moody is the Reform UK candidate, Susan Denham-Smith will represent the Greens and Shaun Long is the SDP candidate.

Mr Jenkinson is the current MP for Workington and was first elected to Parliament in 2019.

And in the Whitehaven and Workington constituency, Andrew Johnson will stand as the Conservative candidate, Josh MacAlister is the Labour candidate, Chris Wills was selected by the Lib Dems, David Surtees is the Reform UK candidate and Jill Perry will represent the Green Party.

The current MP for Copeland, which the new constituency replaces, is the Conservative Trudy Harrison who is standing down. 

Throughout yesterday (Wednesday 22) there was speculation that the General Election would be announced and that it was likely to be in July.

However, shortly after 5pm a lectern was placed in Downing Street and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "Earlier today I spoke with his majesty the King to request the dissolution of Parliament. The King has granted this request and we will have a General Election on July 4."

He said that by the following day (July 5) either he or Kier Starmer would be Prime Minister and he urged voters to back him.