COULD city council leader Simon Letts oust Royston Smith from his Itchen seat?

That’s the question many Southampton constituents will be asking this week.

For Labour councillor Letts, it is the first time he has been a parliamentary candidate.

Usually candidates are chosen two years in advance – but with Labour’s 2015 candidate Rowenna Davis seeking a seat elsewhere, councillor Letts was brought in.

If he manages to oust Tory Royston Smith, a new leader for the city council will be voted in in July.

In 2015 Mr Smith beat Ms Davis by 2,316 votes – but will he beat councillor Letts on Thursday?

Mr Smith is a former council leader himself, was born in Harefield and was councillor of that ward for 16 years.

Also battling it out in Southampton Itchen are UKIP’s Kim Rose, Eleanor Bell for the Liberal Democrats and Rosie Pearce for the Green Party.

And in Southampton Test one of the city’s longest serving political stalwarts will fight for his seat against one of the youngest candidates in the country.

Mr Whitehead was first nominated by Labour in the 1980s, winning a seat in 1997 and again in 2001, 2005, 2010, and two years ago he beat Tory Jeremy Moulton by 3,810 votes to become the only non-Conservative MP in Hampshire.

But will EU remainer Mr Whitehead hold on to his seat against Brexiteer Paul Holmes?

Mr Holmes hit the headlines in 2011 when he became one of the youngest councillors in the country aged just 19, and was promoted to city education chief at the age of just 22.

He then went on to work in Westminster as senior advisor to former transport minister Stephen Hammond and

special advisor to Tory party chairman Patrick McLoughlin before coming back to Southampton to replace Jeremy Moulton as the Tory Test candidate.

The Green Party has lent its weight to Test’s Labour campaign with Katherine Barbour standing down from the constituency in a bid to send Green voters Mr Whitehead’s way.

It leaves room for Andrew Pope of the Southampton Independents and independent candidate Keith Morrell.

But this year there’s no UKIP candidate for Southampton Test.