Editor's Election Diary: Hustings and Harrogate's invisible candidate

Has anyone seen Stephen Metcalfe? He is one of seven candidates standing to be Harrogate and Knaresborough’s next MP but for a person seeking public office he seems remarkably reticent.

Mr Metcalfe’s campaign as an independent appears to have no social media presence and attempts by the Stray Ferret to track him down for our election coverage have fallen on stoney ground. 

According to the official statement of persons nominated, his address is somewhere in the Wetherby and Easingwold constituency. If you see him, send him our way— our candidate interviews begin today with Shan Oakes of the Green Party.

Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce was also unable to find Mr Metcalfe to invite him to its election hustings on Monday, which they kindly asked me to moderate.

The Stray Ferret announced this week it will be running its own hustings at the Wesley Centre in Harrogate on June 25 and at Holy Trinity Church in Ripon on June 26. Tickets are free but need to be booked in advance here. 

So who is going to win locally? The forecasting websites continue to make entertaining, if not wholly reliable, reading. Last night UK Polling Report predicted Lib Dem Tom Gordon was on course for 32.81% in Harrogate and Knaresborough, with Conservative Andrew Jones a whisker behind on 32.27 and Labour on 20.31%.

It had Tory Julian Smith holding off Labour’s Malcolm Birks in Skipton and Ripon and another Conservative, Sir Alec Shelbrooke, narrowly defeating Labour’s Ben Pickles in Wetherby and Easingwold.

Electoral Calculus says Mr Gordon has a 56% chance of winning in Harrogate and Knaresborough, compared with Mr Jones’ 42%, puts Mr Birks narrowly ahead of Julian Smith in Skipton and Ripon and has Sir Alec as the clear winner in the new Wetherby and Easingwold seat — which we understood is referred to as ‘Weasel’ in local political circles.

The expected tight call in Harrogate and Knaresborough encouraged Times Radio to despatch its election bus to Harrogate on Monday. 

At Monday’s chamber hustings, I asked for a show of hands on who had decided on a candidate to vote for. Interestingly, at least half the audience indicated they hadn’t made up their minds so it could still be all to play for.

Rumour is some Conservative and Lib Dem big hitters will be on our patch this week in the final push for votes.

North Yorkshire Council informed us yesterday (June 14) that the counts for all three loal constituencies will take place at Harrogate Convention Centre. Apparently there is already a huge media demand for places at the count at Northallerton, where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will be hoping to retain his Richmond seat.