Post by BossMan on Apr 15, 2020 20:35:48 GMT
HARROGATE AND KNARESBOROUGH
Harrogate is the largest spa town in the north of England, an elegant inland holiday resort in North Yorkshire, 15 miles north of Leeds, boasting grand architecture and facilities almost rivalling fellow spa towns Bath and Cheltenham. It has long been a desirable place to live, especially for aspiring and successful Yorkshire folk, and new private houses have continued to join the Victorian mansions set around the town’s many leafy, flowery parks.
In the 1980s, the town developed into a conference site, used on many occasions since by major political parties. It was transformed into a temporary hospital as the coronavirus crisis gripped the UK in 2020.
Knaresborough is a prosperous town set in a bend of the River Nidd. It was always part of the old Harrogate constituency, but did not earn a mention until boundary changes in 1997 made this a predominantly urban and compact seat.
The original Harrogate constituency was created in 1950, carved out of the Ripon constituency. It was always held by the Conservatives. For the first decade, it was a straightforward Conservative-Labour contest, with the Conservatives usually able to take over 70% of the vote.
The Liberals began to contest the seat in 1964, and Labour were pushed into third place, never to recover. As with so many spa town constituencies, Harrogate was beginning to show that a significant dose of Liberalism was tempering the Tory dominance.
The real breakthrough came in 1997. There was the boundary change. The Conservative candidate was Norman Lamont, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer who was looking for a new home after his previous Kingston-upon-Thames constituency had been abolished. By contrast the Liberal Democrats selected a local politician and teacher, Phil Willis, and he won in a political earthquake by 6,236 votes - one of the memorable moments of that dire Tory election.
Willis went on to increase his majority to 8,845 in 2001 and to 10,429 in 2005, leading many to believe Harrogate and Knaresborough was now a safe Lib Dem seat. Their share of the vote was 56% in 2005, their second highest anywhere in the UK (behind only Charles Kennedy’s seat).
However, things began to change after that. Phil Willis announced he would be retiring – thus taking his personal vote away - and boundary changes would be coming into effect which were unfavourable to the Lib Dems. These were the rural wards of Claro, Killinghall and Boroughbridge.
In the 2010 general election, to some surprise, Conservative candidate Andrew Jones managed to gain the seat by 1,039 votes. And as was the case just about everywhere else in the country, the Lib Dems took a severe hammering in 2015 as the junior coalition partner to the government, and Jones, now with an incumbency vote of his own, won by 16,371. This increased still further to 18,168 in 2017 when Labour support managed to spike under a populist campaign by Jeremy Corbyn as Theresa May lost her Commons majority.
Could the Liberal Democrats win Harrogate and Knaresborough again? The most recent general election result suggests that, actually, they just might. Harrogate Borough Council was one of just three Yorkshire local authorities which voted to Remain in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, and its residents were clearly not particularly enthused with the Conservatives’ campaign theme to “Get Brexit Done”. Andrew Jones’ majority was nearly halved to 9,675 as the Lib Dems squeezed the Labour vote.
It remains to be seen if the Lib Dems can keep the momentum going, with Brexit possibly subsiding as an issue in the electorate’s minds by 2024, and the fact there is not much more of a Labour vote that can be squeezed. But if Conservative fortunes really start to turn sour again, it may just present the Lib Dems with another opportunity for a comeback here.
Harrogate is the largest spa town in the north of England, an elegant inland holiday resort in North Yorkshire, 15 miles north of Leeds, boasting grand architecture and facilities almost rivalling fellow spa towns Bath and Cheltenham. It has long been a desirable place to live, especially for aspiring and successful Yorkshire folk, and new private houses have continued to join the Victorian mansions set around the town’s many leafy, flowery parks.
In the 1980s, the town developed into a conference site, used on many occasions since by major political parties. It was transformed into a temporary hospital as the coronavirus crisis gripped the UK in 2020.
Knaresborough is a prosperous town set in a bend of the River Nidd. It was always part of the old Harrogate constituency, but did not earn a mention until boundary changes in 1997 made this a predominantly urban and compact seat.
The original Harrogate constituency was created in 1950, carved out of the Ripon constituency. It was always held by the Conservatives. For the first decade, it was a straightforward Conservative-Labour contest, with the Conservatives usually able to take over 70% of the vote.
The Liberals began to contest the seat in 1964, and Labour were pushed into third place, never to recover. As with so many spa town constituencies, Harrogate was beginning to show that a significant dose of Liberalism was tempering the Tory dominance.
The real breakthrough came in 1997. There was the boundary change. The Conservative candidate was Norman Lamont, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer who was looking for a new home after his previous Kingston-upon-Thames constituency had been abolished. By contrast the Liberal Democrats selected a local politician and teacher, Phil Willis, and he won in a political earthquake by 6,236 votes - one of the memorable moments of that dire Tory election.
Willis went on to increase his majority to 8,845 in 2001 and to 10,429 in 2005, leading many to believe Harrogate and Knaresborough was now a safe Lib Dem seat. Their share of the vote was 56% in 2005, their second highest anywhere in the UK (behind only Charles Kennedy’s seat).
However, things began to change after that. Phil Willis announced he would be retiring – thus taking his personal vote away - and boundary changes would be coming into effect which were unfavourable to the Lib Dems. These were the rural wards of Claro, Killinghall and Boroughbridge.
In the 2010 general election, to some surprise, Conservative candidate Andrew Jones managed to gain the seat by 1,039 votes. And as was the case just about everywhere else in the country, the Lib Dems took a severe hammering in 2015 as the junior coalition partner to the government, and Jones, now with an incumbency vote of his own, won by 16,371. This increased still further to 18,168 in 2017 when Labour support managed to spike under a populist campaign by Jeremy Corbyn as Theresa May lost her Commons majority.
Could the Liberal Democrats win Harrogate and Knaresborough again? The most recent general election result suggests that, actually, they just might. Harrogate Borough Council was one of just three Yorkshire local authorities which voted to Remain in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, and its residents were clearly not particularly enthused with the Conservatives’ campaign theme to “Get Brexit Done”. Andrew Jones’ majority was nearly halved to 9,675 as the Lib Dems squeezed the Labour vote.
It remains to be seen if the Lib Dems can keep the momentum going, with Brexit possibly subsiding as an issue in the electorate’s minds by 2024, and the fact there is not much more of a Labour vote that can be squeezed. But if Conservative fortunes really start to turn sour again, it may just present the Lib Dems with another opportunity for a comeback here.
