It was caused by the death of the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Harry Harpham on 4 February 2016.

[2] The Labour candidate was Gill Furniss, a Sheffield city councillor and the widow of Harry Harpham.

[5] The Green Party reselected Christine Gilligan Kubo, a lecturer at Sheffield Business School, and their candidate from the 2015 general election.

He had contested the 2015 general election under the same description in Prime Minister David Cameron's Witney constituency, but took only 37 votes.

[7] Smith, of Stevenage, also contested the borough council election in his home town on the same day as the by-election.