Interview: Why Labour thinks it can progress in Harrogate under Sir Keir Starmer

New: Decision on Harrogate's Tier 1 hopes as results of Government review are announced

No one watching the count at Harrogate Convention Centre just over a year ago had a bad word to say about the Labour Party’s candidate or the amicable way he fought his political campaign.

The fact is, however, when the result came in, it was a disappointment for Labour hopes after the high point of 2017 when short-lived Corbynmania helped deliver the party’s best result in Harrogate and Knaresborough for decades.

One year on, Chris Watt, vice-chair of Harrogate and Knaresborough Labour Party, says the momentous changes in the past year - not least new leadership under Sir Keir Starmer - make that night on December 12, when Labour came third, feel like a blip.

Mr Watt said: “We fought a very positive campaign with our candidate Mark Sewards but Brexit polarised everyone’s thinking in the last election.

“It’s important to remember how we performed in 2017 when we got nearly 12,000 votes in Harorgate and Knaresborough.

“That showed what the potential is for Labour in this constituency.

“Everything has changed over the last 12 months. People seem receptive again to the sort of things Labour are saying.

“Membership locally is pretty stable and we’re getting new members because of Keir Starmer’s strong leadership.”

Part of the reason for a feeling of renewed optimism in the Labour camp - despite falling back to 20.1% of the vote in Harrogate and Knaresborough - is the Covid effect.

Mr Watt said: “We’ve been very clear from the beginning of the pandemic that Labour would adopt a constructive role.

“It is important we all pull together to tackle the virus and save lives. But we would have followed the scientific advice more closely than the Government and taken a more robust approach on restrictions.

“We believe if the Government had acted faster and stronger against Covid we would be in a better position now.

“We all owe a debt of gratitude to our health care workers and communtity groups during the pandemic.”

Like the Lib Dems, Harorgate and Knaresborough Labour Party is keen to gain momentum at a local level on the issues that matter to local people.

Number one, says Mr Watt, is the economy and the negative impact of the pandemic.

Mr Watt said: “The effect of this year has been massive on Harrogate’s conference and tourism trade with the convention centre while it plays its role as an NHS Nightingale Hospital.

“With Brexit coming along, too, we need to do all we can to support the local economy.

“But there are many other issues that matter to local people which have not gone away and have, in fact, worsened.”

Priorities for Harrogate and Knaresborough identified by Labour include:

Housing: lack of affordable housing and too many new houses being built in green belt and areas lacking adequate infrastructure;

Mental health care: Problems caused by Covid and rising poverty allied to insufficient government support;

Transport: The need for a greener transport system to reduce carbon emissions and tackle traffic congestion.

Mr Watt believes Labour is now building momentum again by supporting the “bread and butter” issues that matter on people’s doorsteps.

Mr Watt said: “We’re lucky to be drawing more and more people into the Labour Party who are already involved in campaign groups in Harrogate and Knaresborough working to improve things like the lack of cycle lanes, the Nidd Gorge and the cuts in provision for special needs students.

“I live near Kingsley Road myself and I know what residents are saying about new housing, for example. It’s not just about politics.”

Mr Watt would argue that Harrogate and Knaresborough has been what he describes as a “one party state” for too long.

Reluctant to look too far ahead in these topsy-turvy times, he says that Labour is in a position to win council seats for the first time in a long time.

Mr Watt said: “We’re hopeful of winning council seats again. We’ve been getting closer each time. We were within 40 votes of winning in Fairfax last time.

“We’re optimistic we will continue to make progress but it’s impossible to say what is going to happen going forward in the national picture.

“One thing is for sure, we’re not going to get side-tracked into tactical voting.

“We believe people should vote on the issues. For too long Harrogate and Knaresborough has been a one-party state backed by the opposition in everything but words.

“We’re very positive that people need fresh thinking and a fresh voice.”

The electoral history of Labour in Harrogate

Although last December’s General Election saw the Labour Party’s vote halved in Harrogate and Knaresborough from two years earlier, its tally of 5,480 votes for a 9.6% share was, in fact, still one of the party’s strongest performances in the constituency in the last 25 years.

Historically, it has always been a Conservative-Liberal Democrat marginal seat with the former in the ascendancy overall.

But Labour’s results here have to be seen in the context of a constituency whose boundaries have changed at regular intervals over the last 70 years.

Until 1950, Harrogate and Knaresborough were both part of the largely rural constituency of Ripon which had never returned a Labour MP.

Since Harrogate and Knaresborough was created in 1997, Labour has usually come third with only one flash of hope that it could be a serious contender coming in 2017 when Mark Sewards received 11,395 votes for a 20.1% share during then-leader Jeremy Corbyn’s brief honeymoon period before the Brexit debate plumbed the depths.

The Labour Party’s retreat last year should be seen in the context of its worst showing in Harrogate and Knaresborough in modern times which came in 2001 when Alastair MacDonald won just 3,101 votes for a 7.4% share.

By that token, Labour must think its hopes are still alive.

New £46m digital rollout for Harrogate to create 'smart district' and boost broadband for thousands of people

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.