High Peak

The "steep rise" in cases in the High Peak area is "deeply concerning" but not "surprising", Derbyshire's public health boss has said.

Parts of High Peak will be put under "tier two" and placed on "high" alert from Wednesday.

Derbyshire County Council said the infection rate in the Glossopdale area is the highest in the county at 294 per 100,000 people.

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The authority has urged residents to avoid household mixing indoors, adding that outdoors, people should stick to the "rule of six".

It added people in the area should only travel if it is essential.

Dean Wallace, the county's director of public health said there is "a lot of community transmission" in the area.

He added: "The steep rise in the numbers of cases is deeply concerning, although not surprising given the close proximity to areas which have been under extra restrictions for a while, so it's more important than ever that we all work together to beat this."

An MP has given more detail on the "small area" of the High Peak in Derbyshire which is to be put under "tier two" measures.

High Peak Conservative MP Robert Largan said the restrictions for Glossopdale will cover the SK13 postcode, which includes Glossop, Hadfield, Simmondley, Shirebrook, Dinting, Padfield, Tintwistle, Gamesley, Charlesworth, Chisworth, Chunal, Moorfield and Crowden.

He said the rest of High Peak will be under the lower "tier one" restrictions.

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Robert Largan has taken High Peak for the Conservatives, beating Labour's Ruth George by 590 votes.

Mr Largan overturned a 2,322 vote majority to replace Ms George, who was elected in 2017.

Reflecting on his victory, he told the BBC: "In a constituency which is always so tight - it was 50/50 on the [Brexit] referendum, a very narrow leave constituency - we always knew it was going to be an uphill battle.

"For the last 14 months I have slogged my guts out, worked incredibly hard, knocked on over 30,000 doors, talked to as many people as possible, and I think the result today reflects that."

David Lomax of the Liberal Democrats came third and the Brexit Party's Alan Graves came fourth.

• General election 2019: Latest national results
• Election 2019: Election words and phrases explained

Voter turnout was down by 0.7 percentage points since the last general election.

More than 54,000 people, roughly three-quarters of those eligible to vote, went to polling stations across the area on Thursday, in the first December general election since 1923.

Two of the five candidates, Mr Graves and Robert Hodgetts-Haley (Green) lost their £500 deposits after failing to win 5% of the vote.

This story was created using some automation.

High Peak's newly-elected Conservative MP Robert Largan has been reflecting on his election victory over Labour's Ruth George.

"In a constituency which is always so tight - it was 50/50 on the [Brexit] referendum, a very narrow leave constituency - we always knew it was going to be an uphill battle.

"For the last 14 months I have slogged my guts out, worked incredibly hard, knocked on over 30,000 doors, talked to as many people as possible, and I think the result today reflects that."

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A Derbyshire Liberal Democrat candidate has told his supporters to vote for Labour.

High Peak candidate Guy Kiddey said he will quit if the party does not apologise to their candidate in Canterbury Tim Walker, who stood down so as not to dilute the Remain vote.

Both Mr Kiddey and Mr Walker said they do not want to allow a Conservative candidate to win.

"I will stand and I will encourage people to vote for the Labour candidate," he told the BBC.

Radio Derby's Chris Doidge has reported the Lib Dems are looking for a new candidate to replace him.

In a statement on Twitter, Mr Kiddey said: "How many times do voters have to say they are sick of this style of politics before anyone listens?

"In all the campaigning I have done so far, the thing people want more than anything else is the tirades and aggression to stop."

The known candidates for High Peak are Labour's Ruth George, Conservative Robert Largan, the Brexit Party's Mark Nolan and the Green Party's Robert Hodgetts-Haley.

Two cross-county constituencies have been proposed in the East Midlands, under the latest proposed boundary changes.

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Some of the southern parts of the current Rushcliffe constituency would combine with Loughborough, to create a new Loughborough and South Rushcliffe seat.

Further south, some of the current South Leicestershire seat would become part of a new Daventry and Lutterworth constituency.

In Derbyshire and Derby, a new North East Derbyshire constituency will be created that is in line with its local authority of the same name, and there will be a Bolsover constituency containing the entirety of Bolsover District.

There are no proposed changes to the Bassetlaw, High Peak, Leicester East, Leicester South, North West Leicestershire and Mansfield seats - but all the rest face some minor tweaks which you can see here.

The newly elected MP for High Peak in Derbyshire has used her maiden speech in Parliament to highlight the plight of school funding.

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"So many people across High Peak are so concerned at the enormous cuts facing our schools and our nurseries," Labour's Ruth George told the Commons.

"The government may say there is record spending, but when our excellent schools in High Peak are about to lose £4m a year...it doesn’t cut much ice to say we could have lots of money for a free school if we want one."

The Department for Education (DfE) said in March it was trying to end what it refers to as an "historic postcode lottery in funding."