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Rishi Sunak was taunted about living under a Labour mayor in his North Yorkshire constituency at Prime Minster’s Questions yesterday.

Harrogate-born David Skaith was elected mayor of York and North Yorkshire on May 2 last week. He took up the role yesterday.

Mr Skaith was photographed with Labour leader Keir Starmer at Northallerton Football Club a couple of hours after he was declared mayor on Friday.

Mr Starmer told the House of Commons that Mr Sunak now had “great Labour councillors” in Downing Street and Southampton, where he grew up, and a Labour mayor in London.

He added:

“At his mansion in Richmond, he can enjoy a brand new Labour mayor of North Yorkshire.”

Mr Sunak was quick to reply:

“I was of course surprised to see the honourable gentleman in North Yorkshire. Although probably not as surprised as he was when he realised he couldn’t take the tube there.

“I can tell him the people of North Yorkshire believe in hard work, secure borders, lower taxes and straight talking common sense.

“They are not going to get any of that from a virtue signalling lawyer from North London.”

Mr Starmer said:

“It was great to be in Northallerton where they had just voted to reject the Prime Minister’s proposition.

“No matter where he calls home, all his neighbours are backing this changed Labour Party.”

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Labour’s David Skaith pledges to ‘get basics right’ as mayor

Newly elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith, has pledged to “get the basics right” as the first mayor of the county.

The Labour Party candidate won the inaugural mayoral election with 66,761 votes.

Speaking after the result, Mr Skaith, who is originally from Harrogate, said he felt the region had not done the basics, such as building affordable homes and improving transport.

He added that doing so would help to retain people to live and work in the area.

Mr Skaith said:

“We have an opportunity to bring York and North Yorkshire together. North Yorkshire is not an area that we normally do well in, but people want change.

“We have not been doing the basics. That will be my priority. We have a lot of people who are leaving the area.”

Mr Skaith pledged to work with fellow metro mayors in West Yorkshire, but also towards the west in Greater Manchester and Liverpool to help improve issues such as transport.

The election was a disappointing day for the Conservatives in North Yorkshire as they lost the election by 14,794 votes.

Tory candidate, Keane Duncan, came second with 51,967 votes and Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, Liberal Democrat, finished third with 30,867.

Meanwhile, Green Party candidate, Kevin Foster, won 15,188 votes and Keith Tordoff, independent, finished fifth with 13,250 votes.

Harrogate independent, Paul Haslam, won 12,370 votes.

The turnout for the York and North Yorkshire mayoral election was 30%.

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