This question always causes great debate. It depends on how you measure (area or population) and when you measure (new places granted city status & increases / decreases in boundaries / population).
There are currently 50 cities in England. Lots of information available at this link to the Lord Chancellors Dept :--
http://www.lcd.gov.uk/constitution/city/citygj.htm
#part6
My estimate of the largest English cities, by population, starting with the largest is London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Wakefield, Coventry. And in 11th place, Newcastle.

The top ten in the UK are (in order): London, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield, Bradford, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol. So if you want English cities, remove Glasgow and Edinburgh, and add Coventry, then Newcastle (not sure about Wakefield mike?) as 9 and 10

Having spent some years in Coventry I would disagree that this is one of the largest cities, it is in actual fact reasonably small. Although interestingly it has the largest murder rate per head in Europe

Coventry gets in because most people get sent there ( Tony Blackburn 1970)