Solicitor candidates contest key seats in general election

Dozens of members of the legal profession are vying to become MPs as they contest winnable seats in the forthcoming general election.

Around 7% of new MPs in 2019 were lawyers and a similar proportion could enter the House of Commons after the poll on 4 July.

In total, more than 40 lawyers have been selected by the three biggest parties in England and Wales to contest seats.

Blur drummer Dave Rowntree is the highest-profile solicitor to be standing. The 60-year-old non-practising solicitor is Labour’s candidate in Mid-Sussex – a Conservative seat which could be a three-way tussle next month.

Thompsons Solicitors’ senior personal injury lawyer Warinder Juss is favourite with bookmakers to win the newly-created seat Wolverhampton West.

Helen Dallimore, an employment consultant solicitor with Midlands firm Byrne Dean, is also contesting a new seat (Exmouth and Exeter East) for Labour but is considered more of an outsider.

Solicitors Sarah Russell (Congleton), Margaret Pinder (Beverley and Holderness) and Alex McIntyre (Gloucester) must overcome sizeable Conservative majorities to win seats for Labour. 

Sophia Adams Bhatti, global head of purpose and impact at City firm Simmons & Simmons and a former Law Society staff member, is looking to unseat the Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper for Labour in St Albans. 

Lucy Rigby, a partner at City firm Hausfeld & Co, needs just a small swing to win Northampton North for Labour, in a seat held by the Conservatives since 2010.

Employment solicitor Jon Pearce is Labour’s candidate in High Peak, which was won by the Conservatives in 2019 by just 590 votes.

Kevin Bonavia, a civil litigation solicitor with east London firm Edwards Duthie Shamash, will contest key bellwether Stevenage for Labour. The town has voted for the governing party in every election since it was formed in the 1980s.

Solicitor Abtisam Mohamed is Labour’s chosen candidate to defend the safe Sheffield Central constituency and would become the first MP of Yemeni descent in parliament.

For the Conservatives, a number of solicitors are defending seats won by the party in the last election but where the previous MP has stood down.

Mhairi Fraser, an anti-corruption lawyer with City firm White & Case, is standing in Epsom and Ewell – a seat previously held by one-time lord chancellor Chris Grayling.

Sarah Bool, a senior associate with Forsters, is the Conservative candidate for another relatively safe seat, South Northamptonshire.

According to the bookmakers, insurance law specialist Sir Ashley Fox is involved in a close tussle with Labour to hold onto Bridgwater, as is solicitor Lucy Demery in Wokingham.

Former Freshfields associate Sam Joynson is the Conservative candidate in Eastleigh, while family solicitor Joe Robertson contests the newly-created seat Isle of Wight East.

Laura-Beth Thompson, a solicitor working in planning enforcement, has been selected to defend a narrow majority in Heywood and Middleton, while in Nottingham South, former Freeths solicitor Zarmeena Quraishi, faces a similarly difficult task unseating the Labour incumbent.

In new constituency Farnham and Bordon, Khalil Yousuf is in a two-way battle with the Conservatives to win the seat for the Liberal Democrats. Solicitor Yousuf is the managing director of in-house legal services provider Flexible Lawyers.

While dozens of new lawyers may be about to enter parliament, a similar number of members of the legal profession have departed and will not stand in the election. These include Sir Bob Neill, the former justice committee chair, former Cabinet minister Harriet Harman, and David Jones, and Sir Michael Ellis, who served as attorney general in the Johnson and Truss governments.

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