The Conservatives haven’t celebrated many election successes in Harrogate in recent years. They lost the parliamentary seat and the mayoral vote in 2024 and were walloped in the inaugural town council elections last year.

So does yesterday’s victory in the Valley Gardens by-election mark the start of a revival?

In some ways, the result could hardly be less significant. The Lib Dems still hold 14 of the 19 seats on Harrogate Town Council and Tom Gordon is due to be the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough until at least 2029.

But by-elections test the political wind, and there was a definite swing to the right yesterday.

Just 10 months ago, Lib Dem Edward Metcalfe won the seat comfortably with 50% of the vote. Tory John Ennis trailed in second with 31%.

The by-election, triggered by Mr Metcalfe’s resignation, saw Conservative Tom Martin secure 44% of the vote. Lib Dem Nat Slater received 39%, Reform UK’s Tracey De Wet got 10% and the Green Party’s Alex Ireland polled 7%.

In less than a year, the Tories have increased their share of the vote by 13 percentage points while the Lib Dems’ share has gone down by 11 percentage points.

Was this merely down to a strong campaign by Mr Martin and party colleagues in traditional Tory heartlands or was there more to it than that?

'Issues that matter'

Speaking to the Stray Ferret immediately after the vote was declared last night, Mr Martin said the campaign focused on listening to issues that mattered to people, whether it was roadworks on Cold Bath Road or the state of the sun colonnade in Valley Gardens, which a reader complained about in a letter to the Stray Ferret.

He said “the number one thing” he wanted to do as a councillor was to represent people in his ward on the town council.

Mr Martin, who was flanked at the count by former Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, Councillor Sam Gibbs, who represents Valley Gardens and Central Harrogate on North Yorkshire Council and Rebecca Reeve-Burnett, chair of Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative Association, added:

“However, I do think the national party is making real progress. The Conservatives are on the up.”

The Conservatives’ victory was arguably even more impressive because the Green Party decided not to campaign in order to prevent splitting the vote for ‘progressive parties’ — a move that was expected to benefit the Lib Dems.

'Tom Gordon is doing well'

Mr Slater, who missed out on a town council seat by two votes to Conservative Michael Harrison in Saltergate after a recount last May, expressed his disappointment after narrowly losing out to the same party again.

Felix Alexander, campaigns organiser for the Harrogate and Knaresborough Lib Dems, said the Tories “threw the kitchen sink” at the by-election, adding:

Next year sees the North Yorkshire Council elections.

Reform slumps

Reform’s vote fell by 13% to 10% despite the party leading national opinion polls.

Asked why the party didn’t appear to be making the same headway locally as nationally, Jonathan Swales, chairman of the Harrogate and Knaresborough branch of Reform, said:

Neither Mr Ireland nor any of his Green Party colleagues attended last night’s vote.

The party said in a statement last month that it was “aware of the dangers of splitting the progressive vote and letting the right in by default” so it would not campaign this seat but would still give people the chance to vote Green on the ballot sheet.

With the Conservatives winning by fewer than the 71 votes the Green Party candidate received, the party will be left to reflect on whether its tactics paid off, or whether it would have been better served by adopting Labour's approach of stepping aside entirely.

VALLEY GARDENS BY-ELECTION RESULT

1 Tom Martin, Conservative Party, 456 votes, 44%

2 Nat Slater, Liberal Democrat Party, 400 votes, 39%

3 Tracey De Wet, Reform UK, 105 votes, 10%

4 Alex Ireland, Green Party, 71 votes, 7%