Brexit may dominate the political landscape of the General Election on a UK nationwide level, but how much will it be a factor in the Ceredigion race?

Both front-runners for the seat, Plaid Cymru’s Ben Lake and Liberal Democrat Mark Williams are standing on an anti-Brexit platform.

While Ceredigion overall voted to remain in the European Union in the referendum of 2016, more than 18,000 residents (45.4 per cent) voted to leave.

With Brexit dominating the agenda, it is unclear where the 18,031 people who live in Ceredigion and voted to leave will cast their ballot if they want to reflect that wish.

Constituency-level polling suggests that the Conservative Party will benefit most from the Leave vote, but will still fall someway short of gaining the seat.

Ceredigion hasn’t had a Conservative MP since 1874, but the party has come third in every election since the turn of the millennium, except in 2017 where they slipped to fourth behind Labour.

The party’s candidate Amanda Jenner is standing on a promise to back the deal to leave the EU agreed between Boris Johnson and Brussels.

Meanwhile Gethin James, a former UKIP candidate, is standing for the Brexit Party which wants a “clean break” exit from the EU.

The odds on either the Conservatives or Brexit Party taking the seat are remote, despite a large number of people in the county voting to leave the EU.

A mostly single-issue Eurosceptic party has stood in Ceredigion in every election since 2005.

Last time out, UKIP’s Tom Harrison gained just 602 votes at the 2017 election.

This year’s Brexit Party candidate Gethin James had the best result of an openly Eurosceptic party when he secured for UKIP 3,829 votes (more than 10 per cent of votes cast) at the election in 2015.

Elwyn Williams gained just 2.6 per cent of the vote with 977 people putting a cross next to his name for UKIP in 2010.

In 2005, Iain Sheldon represented the Robert Kilroy-Silk led UKIP breakaway party Veritas.

He secured just 268 votes.

The Liberal Democrats are standing on a Revoke pledge which will see Brexit abandoned, while Plaid Cymru is backing a second referendum in which the party would campaign to remain.

The Green Party, and its Ceredigion candidate Chris Simpson, back a second referendum and are “committed” to remaining in the EU.

Standing for Labour in Ceredigion is Dinah Mulholland. Labour’s policy is to negotiate a new deal with Europe, then call a confirmatory referendum, with remain being one of the options.

For more coverage of the General Election campaign trail, see this week’s Cambrian News, on sale now