Andrew Jones will stand to be MP for the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency for a fifth time, the Conservative party has confirmed.

The announcement follows a meeting of the Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative Association’s executive committee last night.

There, Mr Jones spoke to party activists and took questions, before a secret ballot selected him as the party’s candidate once again.

After the meeting, in a statement on his website, Community News, he said:

“It is a real privilege to represent the area where I have lived since the 1990s. I have never wanted to represent anywhere else and have never stood for any other parliamentary seat.

“My approach has always been to speak up for our area first, to be active for the community in which I live and to be positive in my campaigns.”

Mr Jones was first elected in 2010, beating the late Liberal Democrat Claire Kelley by just 1,039 votes, following the retirement of long-standing Lib Dem MP Phil Willis.

He increased his majority to more than 16,000 in 2015, and 18,000 two years later. At the last general election in late 2019, it fell to 9,675, though he still polled his second-highest number of votes, at more than 29,000.

Read more:

• Lib Dems confirm Harrogate and Knaresborough candidate for next election
• Green Party chooses man to fight Andrew Jones in Harrogate and Knaresborough

The next election will have to be held by January 28, 2025.

Mr Jones will face Tom Gordon of the Liberal Democrats, and Paul Ko Ferrigno for the Green Party. Labour has yet to declare a candidate in the race.

When asked in January whether Mr Jones would be standing again, a spokesperson for the Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative Association said:

“I think I must have missed something… is there a general election? I am able to confirm that the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough is Andrew Jones.”

This week, reflecting on his 13 years in politics on his website, Mr Jones said:

“I’m really not interested in US-style attack politics where people drag one another down all the time. Where we have differences we should challenge one another respectfully and constructively. It saddens me that too often in local and national politics this doesn’t happen.

“I will keep campaigning for the things people here tell me our area needs building on the successes of the past 13 years. We have more trains to and from London, more services to Leeds and York, the pacers have gone, we have a largely electric bus fleet, our public buildings are being de-carbonised, we have new leisure facilities being built, more electric vehicle charging points are on the way, there is sustained low unemployment and over 10,000 new trees have been planted in the constituency.

“This is only a flavour of our progress locally. There is more to do and none of these things happen because of any one person. They happen because residents, community groups, councillors and the Member of Parliament work together to make them happen. Residents can be assured that my ongoing commitment to those community partnerships is genuine because this is my community too.

“It is an honour to be given the chance to serve our community again.”

This week’s photograph was taken by Helena Jakuba, capturing a perfect reflection over the river Nidd in Knaresborough.

Helena Jakuba

Photo of the Week celebrates the Harrogate district. It could be anything from family life to capturing the district’s beauty. We are interested in amateur and professional photographs, in a landscape format.

Send your photographs to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk for a chance to be featured next week, we reserve the right to adjust and crop images to fit into our format.

After a process lasting eight months, the Liberal Democrats have finally named Tom Gordon as their candidate to wrestle Harrogate and Knaresborough off the Conservatives at the next general election.

Mr Gordon, who turns 29 today, is less than half the age of Andrew Jones, the current MP, but has already packed a lot into his short political career. He has stood twice for Parliament, led the Liberal Democrats on Wakefield Council and supported Judith Rogerson in her campaign to unseat Mr Jones at the last election in 2019.

But does he have the experience and nous to defeat a seasoned politician like Mr Jones, who will be going for his fifth success in a row? Mr Jones has achieved more than 50% of the vote at the last three elections, turning a constituency held by Liberal Democrat Phil Willis from 1997 to 2010 back into a safe Conservative seat.

With Paul Ko Ferrigno named as the Green Party candidate, and Labour yet to declare, there is the possibility of all the main parties selecting white men. Mr Gordon’s youth gives him some point of difference, which he acknowledges could be advantageous but he says the main reason people should vote for him is because he would stand for “fairness and equality” while Mr Jones, he claims, is a party stooge with a “record of shame”.

But what kind of candidate are local people getting — and how well does he know Harrogate and Knaresborough?

Mr Gordon, who is from Knottingley in West Yorkshire and is the Lib Dem leader on Wakefield Council, was chosen by party members ahead of Knaresborough campaigner Matt Walker.

Mr Jones was quick to express surprise, telling the Harrogate Advertiser (he does not speak to the Stray Ferret) he felt Mr Walker’s local roots made him a “shoo-in”.

Mr Gordon, who is moving to a flat in Harrogate next month, says it was a “lazy attack line” and points out Mr Jones is also originally from West Yorkshire having been born in Ilkley and educated in Bradford and Leeds.

Mr Gordon is keen to highlight his familiarity with Harrogate and Knaresborough, having helped Ms Rogerson in 2019, and at pains to explain he is only from “20 miles down the M1”. But he did not answer when asked to name the manager of Harrogate Town, although he talked enthusiastically about Knaresborough Bed Race.

From disengaged student to Lib Dem activist 

His introduction to politics began by chance as a student in 2014 when he was on a train to London and got talking to the woman opposite, who happened to be the Lib Dem peer Baroness Harris of Richmond.

“She gave me her business card and said ‘if there is anything I can ever do, just get in touch’. At that point it’s fair to say I was slightly disengaged with politics.”

He dropped her a line and ended up becoming a parliamentary intern at the House of Lords aged 20.

But his mother’s diagnosis with breast cancer, the day before he started a masters degree in 2016, was the key moment.

“My mum is a single parent and my little sister was five. I dropped down to part-time study to go home and help.

“Mum arranged to have chemo on Friday nights so she could be ill over the weekend because she couldn’t afford to live off statutory sick pay.

“Seeing mum work a minimum wage job, trying to cover the mortgage and bills, and trying to deal with fighting cancer was an eye-opener. When people have to schedule their chemo around work, that’s not the country I want to live in.”

Mr Gordon in Knaresborough

He says Labour politicians, utterly dominant in his area, had taken local people for granted, safe in the knowledge of re-election. By contrast he says the Lib Dems empower people by giving them the tools to build a better future.

He joined the party in 2017 and stood in Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford at the 2019 general election, finishing fourth behind Labour big beast Yvette Cooper with 6.5% of the vote. The Lib Dems polled 5.1% at the previous election. In 2021 he polled 3.3% in the Batley and Spen by-election to finish fourth behind Labour. George Galloway was third.

Harrogate and Knaresborough is his first serious chance of victory. The Lib Dems increased their share by 12% in 2019 to almost halve Mr Jones’s majority. Mr Gordon says it “was one of the few success stories we had on the night” and “put us in a place where we can think about winning” at the next election, which is likely to be next year.

Why does he think Mr Jones has been so successful?

“We are not under any illusion that as an area there are a lot of demographics in favour of the Conservative Party. But what we do know is there is a route to winning here. We have held the seat before under Phil Willis and feel we can do again.”

Read more:

• Lib Dems confirm Harrogate and Knaresborough candidate for next election
• Liberal Democrats win Masham and Fountains by-election

Mr Gordon cites NHS funding, apprenticeships and championing small- and medium-sized businesses as priorities. Brexit, he says, has “eaten up the oxygen in the room” and won’t feature prominently in campaigning.

But what about local issues — does he think nearly £50 million should be spent refurbishing Harrogate Convention Centre?

He says the long-term future of the convention centre needs to be secured but is less sure about the £11.2 million Harrogate Station Gateway scheme that has divided the town:

“There are strong views for and against it. I haven’t made up my mind yet.”

Pavement politics

Mr Gordon says his political heroes are mainly Americans, particularly Hillary Clinton, but also singles out former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, explaining:

“Pavement politics and grassroots activism upwards is the best of the Lib Dems and Tim epitomises that.”

It’s a style he intends to copy:

“People should expect to see someone who will be on their doorsteps, who will be at community events and leading from the front and championing Harrogate and Knaresborough and demanding better than what we’ve got from the Tories. I am energetic and dynamic and very happy to roll up my sleeves and get stuck in.”

Mr Gordon’s varied professional career includes spells as an estate agent and in recruitment. He’s currently a part-time policy and external affairs officer for the Carers Trust charity and the office manager for Helen Morgan, the Lib Dem MP for North Shropshire — a role he will soon relinquish.

He also plans to stand down as a Wakefield councillor in May, having been elected at the age of 25.

Away from work, he has run several marathons for charity and enjoys swimming and badminton. He has a degree in biochemistry and a masters in public health.

He has certainly not been idle in his 20s. He says:

“I’m an ambitious person. I’m very driven. If I set my mind to something, I tend to achieve it.”

As for Mr Jones, the politicking has begun.

“I met him once briefly in passing at a media event. One of the things local people have said is that Andrew does like to turn up to have his photo taken where possible. They don’t tend to say much else.”

If elected, what difference would it make to local people?

“The key point will be that I’m not going to endlessly trudge through the lobbies as the government says, I’m going to be a strong voice for what local people want.

“He has a record of shame quite frankly, whether it be voting to let water companies get away with discharging sewage into rivers or voting for all sorts of horrendous policies this government has concocted over the last few years — he’s got one of the highest records of following that government whip.

“I will put the people of Harrogate and Knaresborough first — not the Tory Party.”

The first shots have been fired as the election countdown draws near.

The Liberal Democrats have chosen Tom Gordon as their prospective parliamentary candidate in Harrogate and Knaresborough at the next general election.

The selection was confirmed at the local party’s annual dinner last night, following a ballot of its members in January.

Mr Gordon has campaigned for the Liberal Democrats around the country and supported Judith Rogerson in Harrogate and Knaresborough at the last general election.

He works as an advisor for a national carers charity, was born and raised in Yorkshire, and previously stood for the Lib Dems in the Batley and Spen by-election in 2021.

In a statement the Lib Dems said Mr Gordon had stood up for local health services, fought for Yorkshire devolution and for better transport links across the region.   The party said he would be “running a passionate campaign to improve health services, tackle sewage and uncleanliness in our local environment and fighting for infrastructure and investment into our local services”.

Mr Gordon stood against Lib Dem Knaresborough West councillor Matt Walker in the contest.

The selection process has been lengthy for the party, having initially begun last June. It was abandoned two months later when the constituency was made a “target seat” by the national party.

Phil Willis, Lib Dem MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough from 1997 until 2010, welcomed Tom Gordon’s selection:

“Tom would make a fantastic Member of Parliament for Harrogate and Knaresborough. I have seen first hand how passionate he is about delivering change for local people across the region and know he will be a strong voice standing up for the constituency.

“Across the country, people are turning to the Liberal Democrats to oust out of touch Conservative MPs. People are fed up with being taken for granted by the Conservative party and I’ve heard this loud and clear from people across Harrogate and Knaresborough.”

Tom Gordon said:

“I am truly honoured to have been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough. As your next MP, I will fight tirelessly to give local people a strong voice, both here and in Westminster.

“This is a beautiful and iconic part of the country with a strong sense of community. We need an independent voice who will listen to concerns and stand up for local people.

“People tell me our area deserves a fair deal. I’ll be the candidate that champions our area, standing up for local health services, tackling sewage in our rivers and demanding action on the cost of living crisis.

“Residents in our area deserve better than chaos and incompetence that we see in Westminster at the moment. At the next election here, it will be a choice between four more years of a Conservative government taking them for granted or a Liberal Democrat MP being your local champion.”

Read more:

• ‘Questions to ask’ about Lib Dem candidate selection, says party activist
• Conservatives select candidate for crucial Masham and Fountains by-election

The Green Party is the only other party to have announced its PPC for Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Paul Ko Ferrigno has lived in Harrogate since 2007 and is involved in several community football teams as well as being a governor at Oatlands Junior School.

Meanwhile, the local Labour party has been going through the national selection procedure to find its candidate.

The Conservatives have not yet confirmed whether current MP Andrew Jones will stand to be elected in the constituency for the fifth time since 2010.

There has been no word on candidates for parties in Skipton and Ripon, where Julian Smith has been the Conservative MP since 2010.

The Selby and Ainsty Conservative MP, Nigel Adams, has already announced he will stand down at the next election.

His seat looks likely to be broken up in the constituency shake-up being carried out by the Boundary Commission, though this will not be confirmed until later in the year.

A general election must be held by January 24, 2025, at the latest.

John Chadwick

The Liberal Democrats have named the final two candidates in the running to stand for the party in Harrogate and Knaresborough at the next election.

Local councillor Matt Walker and party campaigner Tom Gordon will be on the ballot paper when the final vote takes place, ending on January 30.

The winning candidate will be introduced as the prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) at the constituency’s annual dinner on February 4.

Mr Walker was elected to represent Knaresborough West on North Yorkshire Council last May. He works for the NHS and has managed A&E at Harrogate District Hospital, as well as the out-of-hours GP service for North Yorkshire. He grew up and went to school in Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Mr Gordon has campaigned for the Liberal Democrats around the country, including supporting Judith Rogerson in Harrogate and Knaresborough at the last general election. He was born and raised in Yorkshire and previously stood for the Lib Dems in the Batley and Spen by-election in 2021.

The selection process has been long and drawn out for the party. It initially began last June, but was abandoned two months later when the constituency was made a ‘target seat’ by the national party.

Writing to local party members to reflect on the last year, Harrogate and Knaresborough party chairman David Goode said the North Yorkshire elections last May had been very successful for the Liberal Democrats.

He added:

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones has denied voting in favour of fracking in the House of Commons last week.

An opposition Labour motion was put to the house which would have forced a vote on a bill to ban the controversial practice in the UK.

Mr Jones voted with the government on the night against the motion.

In his latest ‘Fact Check Friday’ video on Instagram, Mr Jones denied he voted in favour of fracking.

He said:

“Contrary to what some people would have you believe, I didn’t vote in favour of fracking during the debate in parliament this week.

“In fact, the vote wasn’t even directly about fracking at all. The vote was about changing the scheduled timetable of parliamentary business to allow the Labour Party to bring in a bill about fracking.

“A bill that hasn’t even been published.”

Read more:

• Andrew Jones MP launches ‘non-political’ fact-checking service
• Harrogate district MPs back government amid chaotic fracking vote

The government won by 319 votes to 228 – however the night descended into chaos amid allegations Tory MPs were “bullied and manhandled” into supporting former Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Mr Jones goes on to say in the video he is “relaxed” about the government’s position on fracking as there is “little possibility of any successful applications to frack”.

He adds that he has “always been skeptical about fracking” and that the UK’s future energy should be in renewables.

The video, which Mr Jones says includes “no politics”, goes onto show a clip of the then Liberal Democrat energy secretary, Sir Ed Davey, saying that the government had to find a “commercially viable way” to get shale gas out of the ground.

The clip then cuts to an image of Mr Jones and the hashtag ‘awks’, suggesting it reveals an awkward truth for the Lib Dems.

The Liberal Democrats could take Harrogate and Knaresborough off the Conservatives at the next general election if people vote tactically, a poll suggests.

The New Statesman published an article today about the impact of tactical voting at the next election.

The findings are based on questions put to 2,500 voters a week ago by polling company Redfield & Wilton Strategies.

It forecasts tactical voting would lead to a Labour landslide and reduce the Conservatives to just eight seats in northern England — with Mr Jones among the victims.

Data by New Statesman and Redfield & Wilton Strategies

The article says Conservative Andrew Jones is currently set to win in Harrogate and Knaresborough for the fifth consecutive time, taking 35% of the vote compared with 32% for the Liberal Democrats and 25% for Labour.

But with tactical voting, the Liberal Democrats would win with 42% compared with 37% for Mr Jones. Labour’s vote would slump to 13%.

The figures are extrapolated from YouGov polling in May, which revealed 50% of Labour voters would consider voting for the Liberal Democrats — but just 13% would consider voting for the Conservatives. The article says:

“Tactical voting would see some voters switch to the Conservatives, without doubt, but the overwhelming majority who would change their vote would change it against them.”

Applied nationally, both for Con-Lib marginal seats and Con-Lab marginal seats, three to four dozen seats would change hands.

The Conservatives would win just 117 seats overall, the Liberal Democrats would win 41 and Labour would end up with 408 seats.

Read more:

• Sir Ed Davey: Lib Dems will target Harrogate and Knaresborough as key seat
• Andrew Jones MP launches ‘non-political’ fact-checking service

The article warns:

“These types of polling questions come with a health warning about hypothetical data, but they can aid us in modelling the next election.

“They let us look at seats where the Lib Dems are in second and gauge how many Labour voters might switch to help them over the line.”

The Liberal Democrats upgraded Harrogate and Knaresborough to a target seat this year, which prompted the selection process for its next prospective parliamentary candidate to be restarted.

Liz Truss may have only just entered Downing Street but opposition parties in Harrogate and Knaresborough have begun manoeuvrings for the next general election.

This week the Green Party became the first to name its prospective parliamentary candidate. The Liberal Democrats are expected to follow suit by the end of the year.

Conservative Andrew Jones has won four successive elections in Harrogate and Knaresborough since 2010, securing 53% of the vote at the last campaign in 2019.

The next election is widely expected to take place in 2024 — and some think his biggest threat comes from opposition parties working together rather than splitting the vote. But the early signs are this is unlikely to happen.

There was little appetite for a pact at a Green Party hustings event this week. Paul Ko Ferrigno, the only candidate standing for leadership, insisted he was fighting to win, and even if he didn’t he was more interested in shaping the debate than doing deals.

Asked if he was willing to risk letting the Tories in with this approach, Mr Ko Ferrigno said:

“Yes — but if what I’ve done is shift the conversation so the next time round the Tories are being more green in their approach, more forward in their approach, because of the way we have been campaigning, then that’s OK.”

The Greens still harbour ill feeling from the last election, when their candidate, Shan Oakes, stood down.

Green Party members at this week’s hustings.

Arnold Warneken, who represents Ouseburn for the Greens on North Yorkshire County Council, told this week’s meeting:

“We had a national agreement with Lib Dems. Shan agreed to stand aside. The problem with that is you have to trust the people you deal with.

“The trust for us has disappeared. That’s not good for a future progressive alliance.”

Cllr Warneken added, however, that a final decision on pacts would be taken locally.

Labour and Lib Dems

The Stray Ferret asked Chris Watt, vice-chair, Harrogate & Knaresborough Labour Party, which took 11% of the vote in 2019, if it would consider an opposition pact. He replied:

“Being a much larger party, Labour operates a national system with local parties making the final decision on their candidate.”

Mr Watt added Harrogate and Knaresborough Labour “have asked to move forward with selecting a candidate as soon as possible”.

Read more:

• Green Party chooses man to fight Andrew Jones in Harrogate and Knaresborough
• Andrew Jones MP hits back over sewage vote

The process to select a Liberal Democrat candidate is being re-run after the national Lib Dems upgraded Harrogate and Knaresborough to a target seat.

“I’m hoping to have the procedures completed Christmas time.”

MPs in the Harrogate district have given their thoughts on the announcement of Liz Truss as the leader of the Conservative party.

As her confirmation as Prime Minister is set to take place today, Harrogate and Knaresborough’s Andrew Jones has welcomed her and offered his support.

He said:

“Being Prime Minister is a great responsibility and I offer Ms Truss my full support in her new role. I backed Rishi Sunak and he fought a very credible campaign.

“I am though, first and foremost, a democrat and when your choice doesn’t win you need to accept that and row in behind the winner. We are fortunate to have a breadth of talent in the government which provided us with an excellent field of candidates from which to choose any of whom would have been up to the job.

“Congratulations to Ms Truss on her success.”

Julian Smith, MP for Skipton and Ripon, posted his congratulations on Twitter.

Both he and Mr Jones highlighted the energy crisis and pressure on businesses as among the issues requiring the most urgent attention from the new Prime Minister and her cabinet, expected to be announced soon after her official confirmation in the role from the Queen at Balmoral this afternoon.

Read more:

• Nigel Adams MP resigns from cabinet
• Ripon MP warned councils are facing ‘enormous’ costs as inflation rises

It is not yet known whether any of the district’s MPs will be selected by Ms Truss for roles in government.

There has been some support for Mr Smith to be returned to his previous position as Northern Ireland Secretary: a mural in Belfast called for his reinstatement yesterday.

However, Mr Smith’s light-hearted response on Twitter suggests he is not expecting a call any time soon.

Big thanks to Larry for the shout out, but tbh it's not feline likely… https://t.co/ow1s2wEDr1

— Julian Smith MP (@JulianSmithUK) September 5, 2022

Meanwhile, Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty, has announced his resignation as minister without portfolio, a position he held under Boris Johnson as one of the outgoing PM’s closes allies.

Posting on Twitter in response to Mr Adams’ resignation letter, Mr Smith said:

“Typically punchy letter from [Nigel Adams] who is a case study in backing a political horse early, sticking with it through thick and thin & showing total loyalty and support. Every PM needs a Nigel.”