Local election results point to more Lib Dem MPs in Sheffield

The Sheffield Star has been looking at the local election results in the city last week and calculating what they could mean at the next general election.

The Star can reveal further misery for Labour, which once counted Sheffield as one of its heartlands:

• Heeley MP and junior Foreign Office minister Meg Munn would lose an 11,000 majority and crash to a narrow defeat by the Lib Dems.
• Hillsborough MP Angela Smith, who is standing in the new Penistone and Stocksbridge seat, would come third, with the Lib Dems winning the seat and the Tories, who see the constituency as a potential target, second.
• Labour's comfortable 7,000 majority in Sheffield Central would be wiped out and the party would only just beat the Lib Dems. Lib Dems could take seat by securing a handful of extra votes.
• Only Brightside MP David Blunkett and Clive Betts, who represents Attercliffe, would be safe - but with reduced majorities.
• Conservatives would fail to make any inroads into Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg's hold on Hallam.

Just a bit of fun, as Peter Snow used to say, but very encouraging all the same.