A TOTAL of ten candidates are running for the Batley and Spen seat in a by-election prompted by the death of Labour MP Jo Cox.

Mrs Cox died in June after being shot and stabbed shortly before she was due to hold a constituency surgery at Birstall library.

The mother-of-two won the seat in 2015 with a majority of 6,000 and had been an MP for just over a year.

After her death, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and UKIP agreed not to contest the seat out of respect for the 41-year-old.

Former Coronation Street actress Tracy Brabin is standing for the Labour Party, as well as nine others representing smaller parties or running as independents.

The Batley and Spen seat has been vacant since Mrs Cox’s death three months ago.

The by-election takes place on October 20 and votes will be counted after the polls close at 10pm at Cathedral House in Huddersfield.

Tributes were paid to Mrs Cox last weekend at the Labour Party conference. Former shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves, who encouraged Mrs Cox to stand as a Labour MP, said that Batley and Spen will go on to elect a new MP next month and wished them well.

She added: “But no-one can ever replace a mother. Jo we miss you.”

At the conference it was announced that a mentoring scheme to help hundreds of women into leadership roles over the next five years had been started in Mrs Cox’s memory.

The candidates are:

Corbyn Anti - By Election Protest;

Tracy Lynn Brabin - Labour Party;

Jack Buckby - No to terrorism, yes to Britain;

Richard Charles Edmonds - National Front;

David Furness - British National Party Local People First;

Therese Hirst - English Democrats: Putting England First!:

Waqas Ali Khan - Independent;

Garry Mervyn Kitchin - Independent;

Ankit Love - One Love Party;

Henry Edmund Burke Mayhew - Independent.