Who Should I Pick?

If you're not a hardcore politics fan, it can be hard to know who to put in your Fantasy General Election team.

Let's face it: There are 4,500 candidates to choose from, and you've got to narrow that list down to 11.

It's not necessarily the most straightforward of tasks.

Thankfully help is on hand, with the Fantasy General Election Who Should I Pick guide.

This page contains a few suggestions and pointers for the sorts of candidates you might want to consider for your team - depending on your approach.

Let's dive in!

Goalkeepers & Defenders

Let's start at the back.

Firstly, you can only play existing MPs in goal or defence - so you're not going to see that much of The Green Party or Reform UK in this section.

We're also only interested in MPs who are likely to see their majorities go up, so we're not likely to see many Conservatives in this section either.

In no particular order, here are a few ideas:

The Big Beasts

The aim of the game in Fantasy General Election is to pick a team that is going to get as many votes as possible.

A good place to start, if you're looking for votes, is MPs who've got loads to begin with.

Labour MP Dan Carden

There are some MPs who are sat on absolutely stonking majorities. While they might be expensive, they are pretty much guaranteed to score you a sack-load of points on election day.

There are plenty more MPs sat on very healthy majorities - and don't forget you can find them by using our filters on the My Team page.

Lib Dem Incumbents

You can't just pick a team of midfielders and strikers - at least four of your 11 players need to be sitting MPs.

There are plenty of Lib Dems who look set to return to Westminster with even bigger majorities than they had before.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey

Often (not always), these are MPs whose closest competition has been the Conservative Party.

With plenty of Conservative voters set to switch sides this time around, these Lib Dems look set to stretch their lead by hoovering up some extra Tory votes:

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland can be a difficult one to call, because the political landscape is dramatically different to the rest of the UK.

If you're not familiar with the island of Ireland, you may not know that the main UK parties tend not to stand candidates in Northern Ireland, and on the rare occasions they do, they tend even less to actually win.

Colum Eastwood (Left) and Claire Hanna of the SDLP

Interestingly, there are relatively few Northern Irish seats where the sitting MP's vote is likely to go up.

Like the Conservatives, the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) aren't forecast to do as well this time around.

They're still going to win seats, but they're less likely to see their majorities increase as some of the other parties.

In actual fact, there are relatively few Northern Irish seats where seats are likely to change hands, or the sitting MP's vote is forecast to go up at all.

Your options here are more limited than elsewhere in the UK - but hopefully this list should give you a few to choose from.

Labour Incumbents

Like the Lib Dems, there are plenty of Labour MPs set to benefit from the Conservative Party's woes.

Plus, something else worth throwing into the mix in some Labour-held seats is the rise of Reform UK.

Where Reform are able to take lots of votes off the Conservatives, Labour MPs are likely to see their majorities go up.

Even if their vote doesn't increase by all that much, the Conservative vote going down will mean Labour MPs returning to parliament with bigger majorities than before.

In all honesty, it would probably be easier to do a list of Labour MPs whose majorties won't be increasing this time around, but here are just a few to get you started:

Again, these are just 5 of the 200+ existing Labour MPs, so you've got plenty to choose from.

It's also worth remembering - the bigger an existing MP's majority is, the less likely it is to go up.

There are only so many votes to be won, so the more votes they already have, the less room there is to improve.

Attackers

Let's move on to the forward areas of the pitch.

For your attackers (remember - anyone can play in midfield) you're looking for two things:

1. Candidates who will get the most votes
2. Seats where the current MP has the most votes to lose

Basically, if the current MP is going to take an absolute drubbing - we're in business.

The Big Name Challengers

So far we've talked mostly about candidates from the big three parties - Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems.

However, there are some big names from the smaller parties who are likely to make a splash in this election.

Carla Denyer of the Green Party listening intently to a shopkeeper in Bristol

The two most popular players in the game this year are Carla Denyer of the Green Party, and Reform UK's Nigel Farage.

Both are on course to overturn big majorities in their respective seats, which is likely to mean points galore.

Tory Marginals

We're trying to be fairly objective on Fantasy General Election (although you can get as political as you want).

However, there's no getting away from the fact that the Conservative Party are going to come away from this general election with far fewer MPs than they started out with.

Very simply (and brutally), the fewer votes Tory MPs have now, the more likely it is that they're going to be down the job centre on 5th July.

There are some useful options in this list because they're A) cheap selections and B) pretty much home run picks:

Don't be put off if you're looking through the list of seats and don't recognise any of the names, or aren't sure who's likely to win this time around.

Even the most seasoned political observer won't know every seat in detail, which is why people often use sites like Electoral Calculus or Election Polling to help them decide.

Scottish Battleground Seats

For the last few years, the SNP (Scottish National Party) have ruled supreme in Scottish elections.

This year, it's likely to be a different story.

Former First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon - before things got a bit turbulent for the SNP.

The party has been through its fair share of controversies in the last couple of years.

There's a sense among many voters that the constant talk of independence is detracting from other important issues for Scotland.

Now, the SNP are by no means facing oblivion - so you can't pick any old SNP seat and expect to rack up the points.

However, with some polls predicting that they're likely to lose around half of their 43 Westminster MPs (perhaps more), it's worth looking into which Scottish nationlists might be on shaky ground - especially as you have to pick at least one Scottish candidate in your team.

There are some big points, potentially, to be scored with these players - but beware:

While the SNP aren't favourites in any of the seats listed, they're not guaranteed to lose either.

A week is a long time in politics, and there's still plenty of time for the SNP candidates to seize the initiative and turn things around.

Britain Needs Reform?

Across the country, we're likely to see Reform taking votes off the Conservatives and , to a lesser extent, Labour.

Whether that means they're worth picking is slightly harder to call.

While Reform UK may pick up a decent chunk of the vote in the General Election (there's an outside chance they could finish 2nd), it's less likely we'll see that vote translate into actual seats.

Lee Anderson (left) was a Conservative MP, and before that Labour, before defecting to Reform UK

If you do fancy taking a punt on Nigel Farage's new(ish) party, we've picked out some Reform UK candidates (besides the obvious) who have a decent shot at winning in their constituency.

These are far from a done deal, but they're worth a look if you're fishing around on the right of British politics, or fancy a bit of extra nervous excitement on 4th July.

One thing it's definitely worth bearing in mind with a lot of these Reform candidates is that some of the closest contests are in seats with very high Tory majorities.

So, in other words, if they do win they're probably going to be worth a few points.

Definitely worth considering, but you might not have any fingernails left towards the end of elections night.

Anything Else?

Remember that this isn't an exhaustive list of candidates to consider - there are plenty of other players you could pick for your team.

For example, we've looked at the seats the SNP are likely to struggle in, but there are also some where they're likely to do well. They could be worth looking in to.

Equally, you might like to take a look at some of the Plaid Cymru candidates, if you're looking for options for your obligatory Welsh selection.

We also didn't touch on the Green's safe seat of Brighton Pavillion, and of course there are going to be some Conservatives who could see their majorities go up on 4th July.

In short, there's no shortage of strategies you could use to pick your team this year.

Hopefully this guide has given you a few ideas.

Good luck, and don't forget to let us know how you get on through Twitter/X.