Nick Clegg funds Lib Dem fight in old seat of Sheffield

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Nick Clegg has pumped tens of thousands of pounds into his old seat of Sheffield Hallam in a bid to bolster the Liberal Democrats for a head-to-head fight with a Labor candidate – the only seat in Britain where the two will go head-to-head .

Clegg has given consistently since leaving the front line in 2017, but people close to the former Lib Dem leader – who is now a senior director at Facebook owner Meta – say he has “stepped up” those donations recently to offer larger monthly payments . .

Although the Lib Dems hope to take up to 20 seats from the ruling Tory party in the July 4 election, the contest in the wealthy Sheffield constituency sees them trying to unseat a Labor candidate just as Sir Keir Starmer’s party surges in the polls .

The Financial Times spoke to more than a dozen members of the public in different areas of the constituency and found none who planned to vote Lib Dem.

Clegg admits the Lib Dems face an “uphill battle” to retake the seat “given how much wind is in Labour’s sails”, a person close to him added.

He has given £30,000 to the Lib Dems in Sheffield since he stood down in 2017, including £15,000 in 2019 and £5,000 in 2022, according to Electoral Commission figures. His most recent donations have not yet appeared in the commission’s database.

Clegg, who was also deputy prime minister in David Cameron’s coalition government, lost the seat in 2017 to Labour, which currently has a majority of just 712.

After leaving Westminster, he moved to California, although he splits his time between the US West Coast and London, which he uses as a base for travel to Asia and continental Europe in his current role as Meta’s Head of Global Affairs.

The battle lines in the seat of Sheffield – once a Tory stronghold – are distinct from those dominating the national battle, with issues such as the Gaza conflict taking a more prominent position in the campaign.

The Lib Dems present is largely aimed at the 15,000 people who voted Tory here in 2019.

“The next government will be a Labor government,” admitted Lib Dem candidate Shaffaq Mohammed. But “if it’s going to be as strong a Labor government as the polls suggest, we may need an alternative voice in this region,” he said, sitting sipping a smoothie in a large, bustling park from the constituency.

The seat’s former Lib Dem representative, Richard Allan, was the only MP in the city to speak out against the Iraq war in the early 2000s, he points out.

In nearby Darnall, Labour’s current position on Gaza lost a council seat in May’s election, one of dozens it lost to pro-Palestinian candidates.

While Starmer has been criticized by some supporters for only recently backing a ceasefire, the Lib Dems called for one in November.

However, Olivia Blake, elected in Sheffield Hallam in 2019, played down the importance of the conflict on voting intentions.

“Everything we’re looking at tells us we’re going to win and I’m very confident,” she said. For all their optimism, the Lib Dems were falling short. “The question people want to answer is who will be in number 10.”

David Mason, a 54-year-old owner of an Italian deli, has voted for both Labor and the Lib Dems in the past, but this time he wants “Labour to get it”. “They have a good lead in the polls” and it’s “time for a breath of fresh air”.

The most pressing national issue for him was the need to improve Britain’s relationship with the EU. “No one says anything about it, they don’t stick their heads over the parapet.”

Further north, sitting in his chair on the edge of the Peak District National Park, David Stanley, a 50-year-old marketing manager, said he was “not in love” with the direction of the Labor party he had support her. The whole life.

“Labour’s positioning seems to be ‘we’re not the Tories’ and frankly I don’t think it’s up to the challenge,” he said, although he admitted he was likely to vote for the party.

On the way, in a large house with three cars in the driveway, doctor Shorav Munjal, 38, said his vote would go to Rishi Sunak, who was “a bit nicer than Starmer and younger” and was Indian. like him, which was “another plus”.

“It has restored the economy now, it’s doing well, despite everything that’s happened,” he said.

He did not, he admitted, think about the Lib Dems for the general election.