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Prime Minister Theresa May has brought her election campaign to Dewsbury.

Mrs May - fresh from her Question Time performance in York where she was quizzed by a BBC audience alongside Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - is speaking to party activists.

Former Tory leader William Hague was expected to join Mrs May at the event. The venue cannot be disclosed for security reasons.

The Tories are aiming to win back the marginal Dewsbury seat from Labour's Paula Sherriff, who took it off them narrowly in 2015.

They have chosen local woman, Beth Prescott, 24, to take on the challenge and to try and secure a seat in Parliament.

Beth Prescott, Conservative Party candidate for Dewsbury at the 2017 General Election

Miss Prescott is little known outside of Dewsbury , but last came to the fore when she took on Labour heavyweight Yvette Cooper for her Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford seat at the last General Election.

She came third with 20.8% of the vote, a few votes behind UKIP, with Mrs Cooper easily retaining her safe seat with 54.9% of the vote.

But Miss Prescott, who is born and bred in Dewsbury and a season ticket holder at Huddersfield Town, is thought to have huge political aspirations - her Twitter account at one time was branded “Beth4PM”.

PM talking cricket

Here’s a video from freelance photographer Mike Clark of Theresa May speaking to the media.

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'We have parked our tanks on Labour’s lawn'

Dewsbury Tories were delighted to get Theresa May to town.

Constituency chairman Mark Eastwood said: “We had a fair idea she would come. We need to be doing well in Yorkshire to get a strong majority and Dewsbury is a marginal seat. We need to be winning seats like Dewsbury for a healthy majority.

William Hague at a Theresa May rally, in Dewsbury
William Hague at a Theresa May rally, in Dewsbury

“We’ve had a very positive response on the doorsteps but we are not going to be complacent. We have parked our tanks on Labour’s lawn.”

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'Sir' Geoffrey Boycott gets a mention

On a lighter note Mrs May was asked: “If you weren’t campaigning today and not working what would you be doing?”

She said: “There’s some wonderful walking in Yorkshire and I do regularly get invited by Geoffrey Boycott to watch the cricket!”

Theresa May rally, Dewsbury
Theresa May rally, Dewsbury

We can say now that Mrs May was at Thornhill Cricket Club.

Didn’t realise she was a cricket fan.

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Flying visit

It was certainly a flying visit to Dewsbury and all very hastily arranged.

Our reporter Nick got to ask a question of Mrs May, even though he was told that we wouldn’t be allowed to ask one.

He asked about if it was right that Kirklees, one of the largest district council areas in the country, could be left without an A&E.

Mrs May responded that there was a lot of “scaremongering.”

Who is scaremongering?

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Who's scaremongering then?

Did Theresa May really blame the media for scaremongering over A&E? I’m not sure she said that and we’ll have to check back. It’s easy to blame the media, though.

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Question on HRI

Our reporter Nick got a question in about A&E at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

The PM said: “There’s scaremongering going on about what happening, local NHS should be driven by local people and what local people need.”

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Questions from the media

“Brexit is a really important moment of change for the country,” says Theresa May. She’s taking questions from the media right now. We’re also live on Facebook.

Wonder how many times she’ll mention ‘strong and stable?’

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Puns R Us

We weren’t supposed to say where Mrs May is right now, for security reasons, but another journo has given a hint.

Here’s her pun-filled tweet. I’m sure Mrs May will bowl over the party activists. Will she bowl over the country? We’ll see on Thursday night...

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William Hague is also here

Former Tory leader William Hague is accompanying the PM on this visit. He was always hugely popular with the party faithful for his down-to-earth Yorkshire bluntness and charm!

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The Prime Minister has arrived

We are live in Dewsbury as Prime Minister Theresa May returns to the campaign trail.

Mrs May is meeting party activists and giving a speech at a local venue. We can’t say where for security reasons.

Mrs May, of course, was in York last night for a Question Time debate with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and this is believed to be her only stop in the county today.

Our politics reporter Nick Lavigueur is there to bring you the latest.

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