Harrogate played shock role in Labour's historic victory in mayoral election for York and North Yorkshire

Born and bred in Harrogate, Labour’s victorious David Skaith may have won a substantial number of votes in York where he is a shop owner, but his historic win also saw the Labour Party perform more strongly than expected across the whole county, including his home town.

Harrogate & Knaresborough Labour Party’s secretary Jill Hanson, who was instrumental in running the local campaign in Harrogate and Knaresborough to elect Mr Skaife, told the Harrogate Advertiser the party had bettered its own hopes in parts of Harrogate itself.

"Last Friday was a fantastic day for Labour in Harrogate and Knaresborough with Labour doing particularly well in Knaresborough and also having the most votes in parts of Harrogate,” she said.

"After another different local party telling voters that Labour had no chance in our area, it was brilliant to see votes piling up for Labour at the count at Harrogate Convention Centre.

"I’d like to thank local party members who worked so hard to help secure David’s victory.”

Friday’s mayoral election result showed that both the Lib Dems and The Green Party also did well across the county and in Harrogate.

A total of six candidates stood for election.

The results were:

Skaith, David, The Labour and Co-operative Party - 66,761 votes.

Duncan, Keane Charles, The Conservative Party - 51,967 votes.

Cunliffe-Lister, Felicity Clare, Liberal Democrats - 30,867 votes.

Foster, Kevin, The Green Party - 15,188 votes.

Haslam, Paul, Independent - 12,370 votes.

After the historic win by David Skaith, whose family still live in Harrogate, the new mayor rushed to Northallerton Football Ground where he was congratulated in person by Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Harrogate & Knaresborough Labour Party’s secretary Jill Hanson said: "The excitement continued when party members headed to Northallerton for a celebratory meet up and to our surprise we were joined by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.

"This was a reflection of how important it was for Labour to win this regional mayoral seat in what has been a Tory stronghold.

"David will serve the region well and he will have no difficulty working with and bringing together other parties in the two councils."

In the meantime, though disappointed with the defeat for the Conservative Party’s candidate Keane Duncan, Harrogate and Knaresborough’s sitting MP Andrew Jones said he would be happy to work with the new mayor in the best interests of Harrogate and Knaresborough and North Yorkshire.

“I would like to offer my congratulations to David Skaith on his victory,” said Mr Jones.

"Whatever our political affiliations I know we both want the best for York and North Yorkshire and I look forward to working with him to achieve that.

“It was clearly a good day for the Labour Party here, too.

"According to the team at the count, Labour looked to have done extremely well in this constituency which is, in itself, astonishing.

“It was a day of firsts.

"Our first Mayor for York and North Yorkshire is now in place.

"A first for Labour topping the polls in our county.

"And a high-level Labour representative for Harrogate and Knaresborough."