The Stray Ferret’s commitment to covering local politics

The general election on Thursday, July 4, marked a pivotal moment for the region, and for the past month, the Stray Ferret’s journalists worked hard to provide accurate, impartial and in-depth political journalism.

Our aim was to provide comprehensive reporting that helped inform readers of all the candidates, their policy differences and promises.

Days after the election date was announced the news team of the two Johns, Calvin, Tim, Flora and Lauren reported from Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Ripon, Harrogate and Pateley Bridge - speaking to residents to find out what mattered most to them and what they wanted from their local MP.

The Stray Ferret was the only local news service to profile the parliamentary candidates across all constituencies in a series of exclusive interviews.

We broke an exclusive story that the Liberal Democrat candidate – and now Harrogate and Knaresborough’s MP - Tom Gordon had been referred to the Gambling Commission over allegations that he placed bets on the outcomes of by-elections in 2021 and 2022. 

We have never been afraid to break stories that are in the public interest.

We held a series of busy hustings in Harrogate and Ripon which provided a platform to hold prospective party candidates to account and gave readers a chance to meet them in person and put their questions to the panel.

Finally - on election night our Editor John and Chief Reporter Calvin did an all-nighter and ran a live blog all from the election count, reporting each result as it happened, until its conclusion in the early hours of the morning.

We believe in quality, local journalism and are dedicated to covering the activities of our new MPs and the councillors at North Yorkshire Council. We need your help to hold them to account.

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