Labour overturns huge Tory majority to win Selby and Ainsty by-election

Labour has overturned the largest ever Conservative majority to win the Selby and Ainsty by-election.

In a historic night, Keir Mather defeated Conservative Claire Holmes to become the youngest MP in parliament.

Mr Mather also becomes the first ever Labour MP to be elected in a constituency that includes part of the Harrogate district.

The result was announced shortly after 4am this morning. The turnout was 45%.

Mr Mather received 16,456 votes while Ms Holmes polled 12,295 votes. Green Party candidate Arnold Warneken was third, ahead of Liberal Democrat Matt Walker.

Mr Mather said:

“I want to begin my time as your MP by being very clear: I understand the enormity of what has just happened, I know what an honour this is, and I am humbled by this opportunity to serve.

“We have re-written the rules on where Labour can win.”

The by-election was caused by the resignation of Nigel Adams.

The full results are:

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Harrogate heavyweights out in force at Selby by-election

The by-election may have been in Selby and Ainsty, but the battleground at the count extended to Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Several local political heavyweights were at Selby Leisure Centre in the early hours of this morning, whispering to colleagues in huddles while circling their political enemies.

With Labour expected to win, the political chat was as much about the race to become the first mayor of York and North Yorkshire next year and the Conservatives’ efforts to maintain control of North Yorkshire Council.

Shortly before 1am BBC News interviewed Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, who said Rishi Sunak’s five pledges had chimed with people in his constituency despite these being tough times.

Asked whether the Tories could hold the seat won by Nigel Adams with a 20,000 majority in 2019, he said he travelled hopefully, deftly avoiding a prediction.

The count in full swing at Selby Leisure Centre.

Shortly afterwards Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat who will try to stop Mr Jones making it five in a row at the next general election made an appearance on Sky News.

Kirk Hammerton’s Nick Palmer, one of three Independent candidates standing yesterday, cursed the ‘London media’ for failing to reply to any of their requests for coverage. He told the Stray Ferret:

“They give us wall to wall coverage of Nigel Farage and Huw Edwards and nobody up here gives a damn about that.”

Fellow independent Andrew Gray, from Harrogate, was too unwell to attend. Pateley Bridge man Keith Tordoff, who is standing as an independent at next year’s mayoral election, represented him.

Acting returning officer Richard Flinton announces the turnout was 45%.

The Official Monster Raving Loony party contingent included a dummy but even their humour was beginning to wear thin as the night wore on.

Finally, at just after 4am, Clare Granger, the Birstwith-based North Yorkshire high sheriff rose to announce the result. Neither Labour candidate Keir Mather nor Conservative hopeful Claire Holmes made an appearance until just before that moment.

Clare Granger

Ms Granger had half-joked earlier that she couldn’t fluff her lines because any error announcing the results could only be remedied through the courts.

The unexpected Tory triumph in Uxbridge and South Ruislip led to speculation that the Tories could pull off a second win. But in the end Mr Mather, 25, won comfortably with 16,456 votes compared with Ms Holmes’ 12,295.

Green candidate Arnold Warneken, looking dapper with flowers grown in Little Ouseburn on his jacket, was third, overcoming Lib Dem Matt Walker.

By the time it was all over, the sun was coming up but the shadows had lengthened over the Conservatives in the run-up to the next general election.

Matt Walker

Local by-election candidates accuse BBC of bias

The three Independent candidates in this week’s Selby and Ainsty by-election have accused the BBC of bias.

Harrogate-based Andrew Gray, Tyler Wilson-Kerr and Nick Palmer issued a joint statement last night claiming they had been marginalised by the broadcaster.

The statement said:

“Absence of the Independent candidates from BBC coverage gives the electorate the impression that they are not able to win; that they are not working hard.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. The mood of the constituency is one of change. Most people we speak to do not align with any political party.”

Opinion polls suggest the by-election is a two-way fight between the Conservatives and Labour.

Betting company OddsChecker has Labour 1/7 to win, with the Conservatives at 11-2 and the Liberal Democrats at 100-1.

Conservative Nigel Adams, who won the seat in 2019 with a 20,137 majority in 2019, triggered the by-election when he resigned last month. It is one of three by-elections being contested on Thursday.

If Labour wins, it will be the biggest ever overturn of a Conservative majority. The party is expected to send several front bench heavyweights to the constituency this week as part of a final push.

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Thirteen candidates are standing in Thursday’s ballot.

The joint statement highlight how Independents came third at last year’s  local elections in Selby and adds:

“With so many candidates, the likely margin of victory is likely to be small. The State Broadcaster’s position could sway this election.

“Tyler, Nick and Andrew all bring valuable experience to this election. The habit of mainstream media to treat elections as a largely binary choice is both insulting to Yorkshire voters and damaging to democracy.”

By-election could give Harrogate district its first ever Labour MP

The Harrogate district could be set to get its first ever Labour MP when voters turn out for the Selby and Ainsty by-election next week, according to an opinion poll. 

The survey by JL Partners reveals Labour could win a landslide victory on July 20 in the traditionally Tory constituency, with 41% of the vote – up 16 points on the last election.

No Labour MP has ever represented any of the Harrogate district constituencies: Harrogate and Knaresborough, Skipton and Ripon, and Selby and Ainsty.

The poll has the Conservatives on 29% (down 31 percentage points on last general election), Reform UK on 8% (+8), the Lib Dems on 6% (-3), the Greens on 6% (+3), the Yorkshire Party on 4% (+1), and the others on 6% (+6). 

A Labour victory – which political analysts Electoral Calculus sees as a 66% probability – would be a remarkable upset in a constituency it has never before won.

Selby and Ainsty has been held by the Conservatives since its creation in 2010, with MP Nigel Adams increasing his share of the vote at successive elections from 49% in 2010 to 60% at 2019. 

Labour candidate Keir Mather, 25, would become the youngest current MP if he wins.

A Labour spokesperson told the Stray Ferret:  

“It will be a mammoth task to overturn a 20,000 Conservative majority, and the biggest Labour has achieved since the end of the Second World War.  

“Labour’s Keir Mather is speaking to hundreds of voters on the doorstep who want change, and for him to be their MP and a strong voice fighting on their behalf in Westminster.” 

A Conservative Party spokesperson told the Stray Ferret the party never comments on opinion polls.

Cabinet minister Nigel Adams was a Boris Johnson loyalist and stepped down last month after his name did not appear on Mr Johnson’s retirement honours list. The constituency has been unrepresented at Westminster since then. 

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The Harrogate district is mainly represented by the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, but large areas fall within other constituencies.

The vast Selby and Ainsty constituency includes Huby, Follifoot and Spofforth, as well as several villages in the Vale of York, including Great Ouseburn, Green Hammerton, Kirk Hammerton and Tockwith. Its main towns are Selby, Tadcaster and Sherburn-in-Elmet, and at its southern end it includes Drax power station and reaches nearly as far as Goole and Doncaster.

The Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency has only ever been held by the Tories and Liberal Democrats, and Skipton and Ripon has only ever been held by the Conservatives. The Selby and Ainsty constituency was formed from the Vale of York constituency – which was perennially Conservative – and the Selby constituency, which swung from Conservative to Labour. 

‘Two in three chance’ Conservatives will lose Selby & Ainsty

The upcoming by-election in Selby and Ainsty is the most likely of three in the UK to see a win for the Conservatives, according to bookmakers’ odds.

Parliamentary seats in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, and Somerton and Frome, will also be contested on Thursday, July 20.

Statistics from bookmakers’ odds, analysed by the Telegraph, reveal the Selby and Ainsty seat is the most likely of the three to remain in Tory hands.

However, it still has a 66% likelihood of being lost to another party or independent candidate.

By comparison, Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip has a 92% likelihood of being lost, and Somerton and Frome – previously held by David Warburton until his resignation after having the whip removed by the party – is rated at 71%.

In Selby and Ainsty, the by-election was triggered by the resignation of Nigel Adams, a close ally of the former prime minister.

He had held the seat since 2010, when it was first formed, and won a majority of just over 20,000 at the last election in 2019.

This time, the Conservative candidate will be Claire Holmes. She will stand against 12 other candidates, including two who have stood in the constituency before: Arnold Warneken for the Green Party and Mike Jordan for the Yorkshire Party.

The full list of candidates is:

Any constituents who have not yet registered to vote have until midnight tonight to do so on the government’s website.

It will be the first time voter ID will be required for an election in North Yorkshire. Acceptable forms of ID include photocard driving licences, UK passports, and bus passes for older or disabled people.

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Tories select replacement candidate for Selby and Ainsty by-election

The Conservative Party has selected its new candidate for the forthcoming Selby and Ainsty by-election following the shock withdrawal last week of its previous nominee. 

Claire Holmes, a barrister and East Riding of Yorkshire councillor, will contest the seat in place of Michael Naughton, who quit the race due to an “unforeseen family medical emergency”. 

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Holmes said:

“I know right now people want an MP who’ll only focus on improving our local communities across Selby and Ainsty – not on political point-scoring in Westminster. 

“That means I will work with Rishi Sunak and the government on our five clear priorities: halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting hospital waiting lists and stopping the boats.” 

The by-election was triggered by the resignation of MP Nigel Adams, who was first elected in 2010 and has since held several ministerial posts under prime ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson. He was nominated by Mr Johnson for a peerage, but did not make the final list. 

Mr Adams had already said he would not contest the seat at the next election, but stepped down immediately after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation in the wake of the cross-party Privileges Committee report into the Partygate scandal that he had misled Parliament. 

The by-election in Selby and Ainsty will be held on Thursday, July 20, the same day as the by-election in Mr Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency. 

The other candidates declared so far are: for the Green Party, Arnold Warneken, the councillor for Ouseburn on North Yorkshire Council; for the Labour Party, Keir Mather, a senior public affairs adviser for the Confederation of British Industry (CBI); and for the Yorkshire Party, Mike Jordan, whose defection from the Conservatives earlier this month lost the party its majority on North Yorkshire Council. 

The Liberal Democrats are due to announce their candidate this week, but are not expected to campaign heavily in the constituency ahead of the ballot, in order not to split the anti-Tory vote. In 2019 they only won 8.6% of the vote in the constituency, compared with Labour’s 24.6%. 

The Conservatives, however, won 60.3% of the vote, giving them a 20,137 majority, which means that Labour will need a huge swing of 18% to win, according to Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde. 

Photo ID required to vote

In a statement, North Yorkshire Council said that anyone interested in becoming a candidate in the Selby and Ainsty by-election must submit a completed set of nomination forms before the deadline at 4pm this Friday (June 23).

Residents of the Selby and Ainsty constituency have until midnight on Tuesday, July 4, to register to vote and until 5pm on Wednesday, July 5, to apply for a postal vote. If someone is unable to vote in person or by post, they have until 5pm on Wednesday, July 12, to apply for a proxy vote.

Voters attending the polling station for the by-election will need to bring photographic identification, such as a UK photocard driving licence, a passport, or concessionary travel passes, such as an older person’s bus pass or blue badge.

Anyone without an accepted form of ID should apply for a free voter authority certificate by 5pm on Wednesday, July 12.

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Labour names candidate for local by-election

Labour has selected 26-year-old Keir Mather to fight the Selby and Ainsty by-election, triggered by the resignation of Conservative MP Nigel Adams.

Oxford history and politics graduate Mr Mather is a former parliamentary researcher who works as a senior public affairs advisor at the Confederation of British Industry.

Mr Mather, who would become one of the youngest MPs, was born in Hull and grew up near Selby.

His candidacy was supported by the unions GMB and Unison.

Many villages close to Harrogate, Knaresborough and Boroughbridge, including Spofforth, Follifoot, Kirkby Overblow, Goldsborough, Little Ouseburn, Nun Monkton, Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton, will go to the polls on July 20.

The Conservatives, who will defend a 20,137 in the by-election on July 20, have named Michael Naughton as their candidate while the Greens have selected Arnold Warneken.

It is expected to be a close contest between the Tories and Labour, with political forecasting website Electoral Calculus predicting a 55% chance of Labour victory and a 45% chance of Conservative victory.

A by-election in Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency will also take place on the same date.

Mr Mather said:

“It is an honour to have been selected to fight to represent this brilliant constituency. Whilst the Conservatives are too distracted by their own chaos to deliver, the people of Selby and Ainsty have been left without a voice.

“We are facing the worst fall in living standards in a generation. Mortgages are up, our public services are broken, and the economy is stagnating.”

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‘Few teething issues’ with North Yorkshire Council launch, say political leaders

Few teething issues have emerged during first month of the new North Yorkshire Council, the leaders of its political groups have agreed.

Councillors said residents facing confusion over who to contact and delays of about 30 minutes when trying to phone the council’s call centre had been the most major cause of concern since the county council and seven district authorities fused operations on April 1.

Ahead of North Yorkshire Council’s launch its chief executive Richard Flinton warned while the authority’s basic infrastructure had been created ahead “snagging issues” were expected when the new council launched due to the scale of the merger and “eight different ways of working”.

When asked whether he was pleased with how the transfer had gone so far, the Conserative-run council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les said: 

“Yes. It has gone surprisingly well, but with the amount of effort put in by Richard Flinton and his team I shouldn’t be surprised.”

He added: 

“We always said if you are going to chose a time to do local government reorganisation you wouldn’t necessarily be coming out of a pandemic with a war going on in Ukraine and various other things happening.

“You wouldn’t chose to launch on April 1, when council tax bills are going out for a new authority and people renew their garden waste collection waste collections with the new authority, but still have phone numbers for the old authorities.”

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Speaking ahead of a meeting behind closed doors with Mr Flinton and the other political group leaders to discuss the council’s first month, Cllr Les said the unitary’s contact centre had become deluged, resulting in lengthy answering delays and potentially some residents hanging up.

He said: 

“The contact centres have been busy and have not been as to strength as we thought they might be. We are taking steps to increase recruitment and increase training.”

The leaders of the council’s other political groups agreed no other major issues had emerged during the authority’s first month.

North Yorkshire Council civic centre Knapping Mount

North Yorkshire Council civic centre at Knapping Mount.

Labour group leader Cllr Steve Shaw Wright said while the unitary authority appeared to be “generally working”, its call centre had been “an absolute abomination”.

He added: 

“Selby Town Council just can’t do anything because people have been forever ringing them up because North Yorkshire’s call centre doesn’t work.”

Green group leader Cllr Kevin Foster said: 

“This has been a massive undertaking and on the whole things have gone very well. There’s still lots of work to do, but if you’d asked me if I’d have accepted this when the changeover went in I would have grabbed it with both hands.”

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Bryn Griffiths said residents struggling to find phone numbers to contact the unitary, which was “trying to force people to use the internet a lot”, and delays in answering, had represented “a mixed start” for the unitary.

He added: 

“With a big organisation of about 10,000 employees there are bound to be a few hiccups.”

Independent group leader Cllr Stuart Parsons added: 

“Things could have gone better, but it also could have gone a lot worse.”

He said the centralised call centre had not appeared to work as well as “phoning the old numbers for district council call centres”.

Cllr Parsons said: 

“It’s been mainly hiccups, nothing major appears to have gone wrong, which is very comforting. It’s just a question of trying to iron out the hiccups and ensuring services improve considerably.”

Call for parents to share maternity experiences in Harrogate district

A group of volunteers is calling for parents to share their experiences of maternity services across the Harrogate district.

Harrogate Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) is an independent group of volunteers aiming to use feedback from parents to ensure maternity services are the best they can be.

From community midwifery to the hospital’s delivery suite and postnatal care at home, the MVP wants to hear from anyone who has experienced the maternity services provided through Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.

The group’s chair, Jen Baldry, took up the role in early 2022. She said:

“I’ve had three children in Harrogate and I think I’ve had really positive experiences throughout my maternity journeys. However, I always think there’s room for improvement.

“I have a passion for developing local maternity services, in particular focusing on personalised care and informed choice.

“I had a baby during covid so that massively impacted me wanting to do this role and give my experience of that, compared to having two before covid.”

The MVP holds regular coffee mornings around which any parents are welcome to drop in to. They offer space for children to play while the parents can chat to each other, MVP volunteers and maternity professionals about their experiences.

There are also regular, free information sessions, such as one next Friday evening on the biomechanics of birth, led by a hypnobirthing teacher and a student midwife. It will cover how different positions and movements can be used during labour and childbirth.

Harrogate hospital

Feedback over the last year has seen the MVP work with maternity professionals to look at the language they use, the birthing environment at the hospital, and delivering personalised care to suit each person going through pregnancy and birth.

As well as giving feedback, people who have experience of maternity care in Harrogate are always welcomed as volunteers with the MVP. Jen said:

“We have over 40 active volunteers. I ask everyone for one to two hours a month, and that could be for reviewing leaflets or coming to a coffee morning, or even going in to the unit for a ’15 steps’ review, when we look at what the experience is like for someone arriving there.

“Anybody who has had experience with maternity services or worked in a field related to maternity can join us.”

Pilot project

While the MVP will operate long term with all parents, at the moment it is working on a pilot project with the maternity department in Harrogate.

Across the NHS, midwives will soon be required to undertake more training each year. Harrogate’s involvement in the pilot project will see it help to produce training based on feedback from people using its services.

The MVP is helping to find parents to take part and is particularly seeking those who have experienced pregnancies with twins and multiples, surrogacy, their child being cared for on the special care baby unit, or giving birth outside NHS guidance.

It also wants to hear from anyone from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds who has been cared by for through Harrogate’s maternity services.

Two focus group events are being held at the end of March – one online and one in person in Harrogate – to gather feedback from those parents.

Jen said:

“The biggest challenge for the MVP is hearing the voices of people who don’t necessarily speak up.

“People tend to get in touch if they’ve had an amazing experience or a really bad experience. We don’t often hear from that middle ground, where it was fine, but there are some areas that could be improved.

“All those tweaks, we’re here to help with. Was there anything that would have made it even better?

“We also want to ensure we represent everybody in the community, from all different types of background – anybody who has had an experience of maternity services.”

For details of upcoming events, visit the MVP Facebook page.

To contact Harrogate MVP, or give feedback on your experiences of maternity services, visit its website.

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Shadow minister brands Harrogate hospital’s reliance on agency staff ‘a disgrace’

Shadow minister Alex Sobel has claimed Harrogate District Hospital‘s use of agency staff is a “disgrace” that is harming patient care.

Alex Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds North West and the party’s shadow environment minister, told a Commons debate on the NHS this week a constituent called Marjorie Dunn spent just over seven weeks at the hospital last year.

He added:

“In that time she saw NHS nurses leave the service and she was treated predominantly by agency staff — mistreated, I have to say, by agency staff. It is a disgrace.

“When she was eventually moved to a recovery hub run by Leeds City Council she got excellent treatment there.

“She had broken her pelvis and been told she would never walk again, but it was the council physiotherapist who got her up and walking again. Is it not right that we should be supporting local authorities such as Labour-run Leeds to get such facilities as well as the NHS?”

Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health minister, said Mr Sobel was “absolutely right about the impact of the churn of staff on a ward”, adding:

“It can be quite distressing for patients to see the faces and names change every day and to constantly be explaining once again what their experience in the hospital has been, if indeed the staff have time to stop and talk.”

The Stray Ferret asked Harrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones if he wished to respond to Mr Sobel’s comments but he did not respond.

‘Workforce challenges’

Asked to respond to Mr Sobel’s comments, a Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said:

“We pride ourselves on providing the best possible standards of care for our patients, wherever that care may be being delivered. On the rare occasions when this has fallen below our expectations or those of our patients, we have procedures in place to identify this and ensure we continuously improve.

“Workforce challenges in the NHS are well documented. As a trust, we monitor recruitment, retention, turnover and staff wellbeing closely and have a bank of the trust’s own nursing staff, who are available to support where we have short- term absence. These staff are familiar with Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust and our standards of care.

“On occasion, we do need to use the services of agencies to support nursing gaps, however we expect all staff working at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust to provide the same standards of care for our patients, and we will address this if it is found not to be the case.

“Maintaining the health and safety of those people in our care is our main priority and we would like to apologise to anyone who has found that their experience has been below what they would expect. In addition, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust work collaboratively across health and social care to ensure that care and services are delivered to our population in the right place, by the right professionals, which means there are occasions where this is a multi-agency approach to ensure the care be delivered as close to the person’s own home as possible.”

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