Imran Ahmad Khan Conservative Simon Lightwood Labour A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Wakefield was held on 23 June 2022.

[3] It was held on the same day as the Tiverton and Honiton by-election in Devon,[4] which the Conservatives lost to the Liberal Democrats.

[17] On 17 May the writ of election was moved by the Chief Whip, Chris Heaton-Harris, formally triggering the by-election.

[18] In its Steerpike opinion piece, The Spectator discussed the prospect of Frost being the Conservative candidate, noting the Telegraph's support for the idea.

[22] Mary Creagh, Labour MP for the constituency until the 2019 general election, confirmed in a statement on Twitter that she would not be seeking to be the party's candidate for the by-election.

[23][24] Sources within the Labour Party initially suggested that Ed Balls, former minister and MP for neighbouring Morley and Outwood, could be a potential candidate in the by-election with the backing of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, as reported by Politico and The Times.

"[29] The party announced four candidates for the longlist: Community Union employee Kate Dearden; Sam Howarth, an employee of Barnsley Central MP Dan Jarvis who previously worked for Jenny Chapman; NHS worker Simon Lightwood, who formerly worked as a staffer for Creagh; and Rachael Kenningham.

[30] Wakefield Constituency Labour Party (CLP) selected Dearden and Lightwood for the shortlist,[31] but the following day, the entire CLP executive committee (barring one externally appointed individual)[32] resigned in protest at the absence of any candidates on the list who lived in Wakefield.

[33] The local Labour committee walked out of the room, but The Guardian reported that "several officers appeared to be uneasy about the walkout".

[3] Labour leader Keir Starmer said the election was a judgment on the Tories and Boris Johnson, and "if they had any decency they would get out of the way for the sake of the country".

[46] Simon Lightwood, the new MP, pledged in his victory speech to "restore trust" in politics, saying the result showed that Wakefield voters had tired of the "deceit and dishonesty of this [Conservative] government".