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24
Nov
Pannal and Oatlands councillor resigns from ‘incoherent’ Conservative Party
Pannal and Oatlands Councillor John Mann has resigned from the Conservative Party and will sit as an independent on North Yorkshire Council.
His decision means the Conservatives now have just 42 of the 90 seats on North Yorkshire Council. The administration is proppsed up by the support of three Independents, who sit on a Conservatives and Independents group.
In a statement today (November 24), Cllr Mann said the party he had supported for decades was “slipping away” and has “no overarching vision or coherent set of ideas”.
He said:
With a heavy heart, I have just written to the Conservative Party local office to resign from the party.
My concerns are focused on the national political situation, the current state of the Conservative Party at Westminster and its continued diminishing prospects for the future.
It seems that the party, which I have been a supporter of for decades, is slipping away with every new national opinion poll; and appears to have no overarching vision or coherent set of ideas to revive and renew our failing state.
For the foreseeable future, I will sit as an unaffiliated independent in the North Yorkshire Council chamber; and will continue to represent and work for my constituents in Oatlands and Pannal Division.
What does it mean?
Cllr Mann, who is vice-chair of the council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency planning committee, which adjudicates on major planning applications in the area, was elected with 41% of the vote at the May 2022 North Yorkshire Council elections.
The Conservatives held 47 of the 90 seats after the election but have seen the number eroded to 42.
However, there appears little prospect of a coalition forming against them given the fractured nature of the opposition.
There are now
42 Conservatives
17 Independents (three are members of the Conservatives and Independents group, nine are on an Independents group and five are unaffiliated)
13 Liberal Democrats
10 Labour Party and Labour and Co-Operative Party
4 Green Party
3 Reform UK
1 Liberal
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