27
Jun 2024
The man aiming to make July 4 independent day in Skipton and Ripon
The Stray Ferret has spoken to all the candidates standing for election in the Skipton and Ripon constituency and is publishing features on each of them. Here, independent Keith Tordoff talks about what his priorities would be if elected.
In an era when many politicians are media trained to within an inch of their lives, Keith Tordoff stands out.
Mr Tordoff’s views are so unvarnished, it’s little surprise he’s standing as an independent. Even the Yorkshire Party decided to part ways when he came up with a policy to give free chickens to poor people in this year’s race to be North Yorkshire’s first mayor.
The former police officer, Pateley Bridge businessman and bank fraud investigator finished fifth of six mayoral candidates with 7% of the vote, after finishing third with 17% as an independent in the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner by-election in 2021.
Why is he trying again in the race to be Skipton and Ripon MP? He says:
Because I’m doing it for the right reasons. I’m doing it to serve people not to serve party or politics.
Polls suggest the constituency is a two-horse race between Conservative Julian Smith, who is aiming to win a fifth term, and Labour’s Malcolm Birks, but Mr Tordoff insists he has a chance of upsetting the odds.
He describes Mr Smith as “a nice guy who has been swallowed up by the London bubble” and says success depends on how awake people are to the need for change. He credits Reform UK for achieving this but dismisses leader Nigel Farage as “a fake prophet”.
Mr Tordoff cites “localism rather than globalism” as one of the key issues, which he says means more local decision making and funding. He also wants better support for farmers and stronger law and order. “It’s disgusting we are not investigating every crime,” he says.
Asked for his views on hot local issues, he is typically to-the-point.
He says efforts to stabilise land at the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in Ripon should be suspended immediately after the cost of remedial work rose to £8.5 million. He adds:
Stop pumping our money into the ground. At some point there will be further movement. That site is a write-off. Develop another site.
On Pateley Bridge High Street
Opposes Ripon Cathedral annexe
He also wants Ripon Cathedral’s proposed £8 million annexe development on Minster Gardens halted, and claims removing trees and drilling holes into the land would harm the environment and risk destabilising land, adding:
It’s questionable if any development can take place there.
As for the 1,300-home Clotherholme development, Mr Tordoff says maintaining the military heritage within the barracks site “should be quite feasible” amid fears historic military camps and training bridges could be lost forever.
Ripon, he says, could benefit from the Tordoff touch, just as Pateley Bridge did when he arrived in the 1990s to run the Oldest Sweet Shop in England and became chair of Nidderdale Chamber of Trade.
When I came to Pateley Bridge in the 1990s, I built up the chamber of trade from 15 to 20 members to 120.
I created a buzz on the High Street, I was behind the 1940s weekend, the food festival… Since I stopped being involved things have started going downhill.
There are no promises of free chickens this time. The mayoral role, he says, came with budgets to pay for such a scheme, which he still insists makes “total sense”:
It’s a tried and tested method. It saves families money and is nutritionally fantastic.
It’s easy to pooh-pooh things but it was trialled on 10,000 farms in Belgium and is being rolled out.
The Tordoff Gallery
Ripper squad
Mr Tordoff, a fit 68-year-old who says he can still do 50 press-ups, and has the ability to wake-up anytime he likes without an alarm, certainly has more life experience than many candidates.
In the early days of his 20-year police career in Leeds he was twice one of the first detectives on the scene when the bodies of Yorkshire Ripper victims were found.
He was awarded an MBE in 2018 for services to business and the community. Since selling the sweet shop he now runs the Tordoff Gallery on Pateley Bridge High Street, which sells rare film posters, some of which are worth thousands of pounds.
He will be the first to admit he won’t win many awards for diplomacy. Never afraid to rub people up the wrong way, he has been a fierce critic of covid masks and lockdowns, which he says damaged businesses and mental health, and claims covid jabs have been shown to be neither safe nor effective.
He dismisses as “classic propaganda” the suggestion that he’s an “anti-vaxxer” and goes on to describe himself as a “naturopathic healer”.
Mr Tordoff could never be accused of political correctness — but is this his last hurrah? He bristles at the suggestion:
I’m definitely not finished. We need honest, true leaders more than ever. Because I was a detective I can sniff out problems and I am acting for the right reasons.
The people of Skipton and Ripon need someone driven by passion to do it for the right reasons.
The full list of candidates for Skipton and Ripon are as follows:
- Malcolm Birks, Labour
- Andy Brown, Green Party
- Simon Garvey, Reform UK
- Ryan Kett, Yorkshire Party
- Andrew Murday, Liberal Democrats
- Guy Phoenix, Heritage Party
- Julian Smith, Conservative
- Keith Tordoff, Independent
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