Post by bungle on Oct 18, 2023 14:08:17 GMT
Thirsk and Malton
Thirsk and Malton was a name first used for a parliamentary constituency way back in 1885. Despite being dispensed with in 1983 it was revived in 2010 and survives intact as a name for this geographically vast and mainly rural constituency in North Yorkshire. This seat certainly scores high in the attractiveness stakes: besides lots of pretty villages it includes both the southern section of the North York Moors National Park and the Howardian Hills AONB.
There is no obvious focal point to the constituency; as the name implies two of the most notable conurbations within the constituency are the market towns of Thirsk (pop 5,000) and Malton (just under 6,000 but rising). Technically, they aren’t the most populous as both Pickering and Filey have populations of around 7,000. Before we demand a change to ‘Pickering & Filey’ it should be pointed out that both Thirsk and Malton suffer from that wonderfully Yorkshire trait of resistance to ‘sensible’ administrative change. Both have a contiguous conurbation that stubbornly refuses to join up as a whole. For Thirsk, this is Sowerby (pop 4,500) and any visitor will be hard pressed to work out where Thirsk stops and Sowerby begins. For Malton, its immediate neighbour is Norton-upon-Derwent - known to all locals simply as Norton (pop 7,500). The boundary here is the much more obvious River Derwent and it is historically more significant as Norton used to be in the East Riding until 1974. Woe betides any politician who conflates Norton into Malton: the local Liberal Democrat Focus Team would be drawing attention to this before you could finish cooking a James Martin Yorkshire Curd Tart (he is from Malton, btw). The local rugby team get full marks for diplomacy – Malton & Norton RUFC.
About half of the seat is formed from the former district of Ryedale, which was abolished in 2023 when North Yorkshire County became a single unitary authority. The electorate of Ryedale DC was only 37,000 which meant it lacked viability as a unit of local government. This was not an inherent weakness at its birth: about half of the original Ryedale population closest to York (Haxby, Strensall, Huntington etc) was incorporated into the new City of York Unitary in 1996. Several of these distinctly suburban wards remained part of the Ryedale parliamentary constituency throughout its existence (1983-2010) but the creation of York Outer CC in that year saw their final disconnection from wider North Yorkshire.
By creating two seats focused tightly on York it meant some re-jigging was required which resulted in the effective dismemberment of the short-lived Vale of York CC (1997-2010). These changes resulted in Thirsk and the southern/eastern wards of Hambleton district (mainly prosperous villages north of York and the small town of Easingwold) joining with the remainder of the old Ryedale constituency to form the resurrected Thirsk and Malton constituency. This incoming territory was distinctly more Conservative inclined than the suburbs, but the overall impact was merely to make a safe Conservative seat even safer.
By 2019 this Thirsk and Malton configuration was oversized so the 2023 Review brings changes, despite no adjustment to the name. The majority of the territory between York and Thirsk (some 14,000 electors) is once again on the move. It will form part of a controversial new West/North Yorkshire cross-boundary seat called Wetherby and Easingwold CC. In its place comes around 9,000 electors to the north west of Thirsk around Bedale and Tanfield that leaves Thirsk and Malton only just below the upper threshold for electorates at 77,000. This territory is very similar to that which has been lost in terms of being small villages and a town with a distinct Conservative inclination so the net impact will only be a small reduction in the size of the Conservative majority.
The most obvious impact of this change is to make the shape of this seat somewhat awkward – looking more American in terms of partisan engineering with the visual impression of a wrapped boiled sweet. Bedale is the extreme to the west and on the eastern side is the coastal seaside town of Filey. Filey is part of the borough of Scarborough and it does look on the map as if it is some kind of awkward bolt-on. There are perennial attempts to place Filey within a Scarborough constituency but Filey and its neighbouring Hertford ward were always part of the old Ryedale constituency so in fact they have now been connected to the inland areas for nearly 40 years. The local MP does like to refer to Filey when name checking the seat so it is surprising, given their stance elsewhere, that Filey didn’t get added this time around.
As a town Filey has a very fine and popular beach and it doesn’t really suffer from that East Coast ‘run-down resort’ type of deprivation of its neighbours further down the coast towards the Humber (for one thing, it still retains a railway station). It does have one thing in common with some of these areas - a brief flirtation with UKIP locally - but largely the politics here is Con vs Filey Independents. Filey isn’t a typical geography for this constituency – this is predominantly a seat of small market towns, pretty villages and attractive countryside. The northern end of the constituency contains several dales that make up some of the North York Moors National Park: Bilsdale, Farndale and Rosedale where shooting estates and tourist related activity dominate. Within the Vales of Pickering and York agricultural interests are prominent (both arable and livestock) and there is a strong equestrian presence around Norton. It may come as a surprise that the real-life vet who gave rise to James Herriot was based in Thirsk rather than the Yorkshire Dales. The population trends in this constituency are distinctly older than average but it should be noted that incomes here are below national average. This isn’t the North Yorkshire of Harrogate-style affluent conservatism; instead this is slightly more insular with limited population mobility, especially the further away from York you travel. There are some noticeable areas of housing growth – Malton, Norton and Sowerby continue to expand through mainly private, family-sized housing in new build peripheral estates.
All of the above does imply that this isn’t an area steeped in a culture of vibrant party politics but that means at a local level that voters are prepared to consider alternatives. Independents have traditionally done well in some areas such as Sheriff Hutton, Hovingham or Rillington but their electorates will vote Tory come a General Election. The old Liberals are active in Pickering and have been successful over the years at both district and unitary level. The Liberal Democrats are active in Norton but their challenge has been blunted of late (in 2019 the former 1986 Ryedale by-election winner Elizabeth Shields, then aged 91, lost her Norton East seat after 39 years service); better news for them was managing to squeeze a narrow win in the Amotherby and Ampleforth division in the 2022 unitary election. Labour has no elected presence across this seat at a local level and last won seats in Thirsk in the early 2000s and Kirkbymoorside in the late 1990s. There has been no obvious opening for them since then, even in 2022, so this constituency is barren ground for them despite the fact they have secured a clear second place in the last three contests. The Green challenge hasn’t taken off significantly, but it rose sufficiently for them to narrowly win the unitary seat in Sowerby in 2022 (although that winning candidate has just resigned).
So does all of the above mean the history of parliamentary elections in Thirsk and Malton is somewhat predictable and straightforward? Yes, it is a very safe Conservative seat and not one to especially look out for on election night. But a bit like a solid Yorkshire pork pie, its psephology might be quite dull but occasionally the right seasoning is found to spice things up. In 1929 the sitting Conservative member Sir Edmund Turton died unexpectedly one week before close of nominations for the General Election. By then, the posters had been printed - “Vote for Turton”. The story goes that rather than face the expense and organisation of new election materials the family rootled around and found a willing volunteer with the same surname: a fresh-faced 25 year old called Robert ‘Robin’ Turton. Given his lack of preparation he might have been expected to sink without trace, but in fact his stamina kicked in and after a medium-ranking ministerial career he ultimately became Father of the House in 1965. He was supposed to retire at the 1970 GE and the local association had selected as his replacement a 26 year old debonair old Etonian, who at the time was making his presence known locally as a newsreader on Yorkshire TV’s Calendar programme. Given his later notoriety this aspect of Jonathan Aitken’s story is often forgotten but in 1970 he got into hot water over the leaking of secret papers to the Sunday Telegraph & a right-wing Tory MP and ended up on trial. Despite being acquitted, this was all too much for the gentle backwoodsmen and tweeded ladies of Thirsk and Malton and he was dropped: Turton was asked to stand again.
If we whizz forward to the re-birth of the constituency in 2010 there was a moderate degree of tumult when sitting Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh defeated the sitting Ryedale MP John Greenway for the nomination (her % territory in the new seat was a distinct minority compared to Greenway's claim). In 2010 McIntosh had to wait 3 extra weeks to become the MP as the UKIP candidate died after nominations closed; the resulting deferred election was probably only remarkable for the unique sight of Harriet Harman campaigning from a London bus in Thirsk Market Place. This wasn’t the only by-election in living memory to take place within the bulk of the seat. In 1986 the aforementioned Mrs Shields managed to score a convincing victory in Ryedale for the Liberal Alliance. A year later at the General Election normal service resumed.
After 2010 normal service did not resume in Thirsk and Malton. Those seeds of discord over that initial selection battle continued to germinate and by 2013 McIntosh was effectively estranged from her association. After much manoeuvring she was de-selected and promptly threatened to run as an independent. This fizzled out when David Cameron promised her a peerage if she went quietly. She was replaced by Kevin Hollinrake, founder of Hunters Estate Agents, who has held the seat comfortably in the last three general elections by an average margin of just under 40%. Hollinrake was a passionate supporter of Rishi Sunak’s leadership bids and he was rewarded with office as a junior minister in 2022. Hollinrake’s home base is very much around Easingwold so it was touted that he could follow this territory into the new seat bearing this name, but he has stuck with Thirsk and Malton for the next election. Other party candidates have yet to be selected.
Thirsk and Malton was a name first used for a parliamentary constituency way back in 1885. Despite being dispensed with in 1983 it was revived in 2010 and survives intact as a name for this geographically vast and mainly rural constituency in North Yorkshire. This seat certainly scores high in the attractiveness stakes: besides lots of pretty villages it includes both the southern section of the North York Moors National Park and the Howardian Hills AONB.
There is no obvious focal point to the constituency; as the name implies two of the most notable conurbations within the constituency are the market towns of Thirsk (pop 5,000) and Malton (just under 6,000 but rising). Technically, they aren’t the most populous as both Pickering and Filey have populations of around 7,000. Before we demand a change to ‘Pickering & Filey’ it should be pointed out that both Thirsk and Malton suffer from that wonderfully Yorkshire trait of resistance to ‘sensible’ administrative change. Both have a contiguous conurbation that stubbornly refuses to join up as a whole. For Thirsk, this is Sowerby (pop 4,500) and any visitor will be hard pressed to work out where Thirsk stops and Sowerby begins. For Malton, its immediate neighbour is Norton-upon-Derwent - known to all locals simply as Norton (pop 7,500). The boundary here is the much more obvious River Derwent and it is historically more significant as Norton used to be in the East Riding until 1974. Woe betides any politician who conflates Norton into Malton: the local Liberal Democrat Focus Team would be drawing attention to this before you could finish cooking a James Martin Yorkshire Curd Tart (he is from Malton, btw). The local rugby team get full marks for diplomacy – Malton & Norton RUFC.
About half of the seat is formed from the former district of Ryedale, which was abolished in 2023 when North Yorkshire County became a single unitary authority. The electorate of Ryedale DC was only 37,000 which meant it lacked viability as a unit of local government. This was not an inherent weakness at its birth: about half of the original Ryedale population closest to York (Haxby, Strensall, Huntington etc) was incorporated into the new City of York Unitary in 1996. Several of these distinctly suburban wards remained part of the Ryedale parliamentary constituency throughout its existence (1983-2010) but the creation of York Outer CC in that year saw their final disconnection from wider North Yorkshire.
By creating two seats focused tightly on York it meant some re-jigging was required which resulted in the effective dismemberment of the short-lived Vale of York CC (1997-2010). These changes resulted in Thirsk and the southern/eastern wards of Hambleton district (mainly prosperous villages north of York and the small town of Easingwold) joining with the remainder of the old Ryedale constituency to form the resurrected Thirsk and Malton constituency. This incoming territory was distinctly more Conservative inclined than the suburbs, but the overall impact was merely to make a safe Conservative seat even safer.
By 2019 this Thirsk and Malton configuration was oversized so the 2023 Review brings changes, despite no adjustment to the name. The majority of the territory between York and Thirsk (some 14,000 electors) is once again on the move. It will form part of a controversial new West/North Yorkshire cross-boundary seat called Wetherby and Easingwold CC. In its place comes around 9,000 electors to the north west of Thirsk around Bedale and Tanfield that leaves Thirsk and Malton only just below the upper threshold for electorates at 77,000. This territory is very similar to that which has been lost in terms of being small villages and a town with a distinct Conservative inclination so the net impact will only be a small reduction in the size of the Conservative majority.
The most obvious impact of this change is to make the shape of this seat somewhat awkward – looking more American in terms of partisan engineering with the visual impression of a wrapped boiled sweet. Bedale is the extreme to the west and on the eastern side is the coastal seaside town of Filey. Filey is part of the borough of Scarborough and it does look on the map as if it is some kind of awkward bolt-on. There are perennial attempts to place Filey within a Scarborough constituency but Filey and its neighbouring Hertford ward were always part of the old Ryedale constituency so in fact they have now been connected to the inland areas for nearly 40 years. The local MP does like to refer to Filey when name checking the seat so it is surprising, given their stance elsewhere, that Filey didn’t get added this time around.
As a town Filey has a very fine and popular beach and it doesn’t really suffer from that East Coast ‘run-down resort’ type of deprivation of its neighbours further down the coast towards the Humber (for one thing, it still retains a railway station). It does have one thing in common with some of these areas - a brief flirtation with UKIP locally - but largely the politics here is Con vs Filey Independents. Filey isn’t a typical geography for this constituency – this is predominantly a seat of small market towns, pretty villages and attractive countryside. The northern end of the constituency contains several dales that make up some of the North York Moors National Park: Bilsdale, Farndale and Rosedale where shooting estates and tourist related activity dominate. Within the Vales of Pickering and York agricultural interests are prominent (both arable and livestock) and there is a strong equestrian presence around Norton. It may come as a surprise that the real-life vet who gave rise to James Herriot was based in Thirsk rather than the Yorkshire Dales. The population trends in this constituency are distinctly older than average but it should be noted that incomes here are below national average. This isn’t the North Yorkshire of Harrogate-style affluent conservatism; instead this is slightly more insular with limited population mobility, especially the further away from York you travel. There are some noticeable areas of housing growth – Malton, Norton and Sowerby continue to expand through mainly private, family-sized housing in new build peripheral estates.
All of the above does imply that this isn’t an area steeped in a culture of vibrant party politics but that means at a local level that voters are prepared to consider alternatives. Independents have traditionally done well in some areas such as Sheriff Hutton, Hovingham or Rillington but their electorates will vote Tory come a General Election. The old Liberals are active in Pickering and have been successful over the years at both district and unitary level. The Liberal Democrats are active in Norton but their challenge has been blunted of late (in 2019 the former 1986 Ryedale by-election winner Elizabeth Shields, then aged 91, lost her Norton East seat after 39 years service); better news for them was managing to squeeze a narrow win in the Amotherby and Ampleforth division in the 2022 unitary election. Labour has no elected presence across this seat at a local level and last won seats in Thirsk in the early 2000s and Kirkbymoorside in the late 1990s. There has been no obvious opening for them since then, even in 2022, so this constituency is barren ground for them despite the fact they have secured a clear second place in the last three contests. The Green challenge hasn’t taken off significantly, but it rose sufficiently for them to narrowly win the unitary seat in Sowerby in 2022 (although that winning candidate has just resigned).
So does all of the above mean the history of parliamentary elections in Thirsk and Malton is somewhat predictable and straightforward? Yes, it is a very safe Conservative seat and not one to especially look out for on election night. But a bit like a solid Yorkshire pork pie, its psephology might be quite dull but occasionally the right seasoning is found to spice things up. In 1929 the sitting Conservative member Sir Edmund Turton died unexpectedly one week before close of nominations for the General Election. By then, the posters had been printed - “Vote for Turton”. The story goes that rather than face the expense and organisation of new election materials the family rootled around and found a willing volunteer with the same surname: a fresh-faced 25 year old called Robert ‘Robin’ Turton. Given his lack of preparation he might have been expected to sink without trace, but in fact his stamina kicked in and after a medium-ranking ministerial career he ultimately became Father of the House in 1965. He was supposed to retire at the 1970 GE and the local association had selected as his replacement a 26 year old debonair old Etonian, who at the time was making his presence known locally as a newsreader on Yorkshire TV’s Calendar programme. Given his later notoriety this aspect of Jonathan Aitken’s story is often forgotten but in 1970 he got into hot water over the leaking of secret papers to the Sunday Telegraph & a right-wing Tory MP and ended up on trial. Despite being acquitted, this was all too much for the gentle backwoodsmen and tweeded ladies of Thirsk and Malton and he was dropped: Turton was asked to stand again.
If we whizz forward to the re-birth of the constituency in 2010 there was a moderate degree of tumult when sitting Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh defeated the sitting Ryedale MP John Greenway for the nomination (her % territory in the new seat was a distinct minority compared to Greenway's claim). In 2010 McIntosh had to wait 3 extra weeks to become the MP as the UKIP candidate died after nominations closed; the resulting deferred election was probably only remarkable for the unique sight of Harriet Harman campaigning from a London bus in Thirsk Market Place. This wasn’t the only by-election in living memory to take place within the bulk of the seat. In 1986 the aforementioned Mrs Shields managed to score a convincing victory in Ryedale for the Liberal Alliance. A year later at the General Election normal service resumed.
After 2010 normal service did not resume in Thirsk and Malton. Those seeds of discord over that initial selection battle continued to germinate and by 2013 McIntosh was effectively estranged from her association. After much manoeuvring she was de-selected and promptly threatened to run as an independent. This fizzled out when David Cameron promised her a peerage if she went quietly. She was replaced by Kevin Hollinrake, founder of Hunters Estate Agents, who has held the seat comfortably in the last three general elections by an average margin of just under 40%. Hollinrake was a passionate supporter of Rishi Sunak’s leadership bids and he was rewarded with office as a junior minister in 2022. Hollinrake’s home base is very much around Easingwold so it was touted that he could follow this territory into the new seat bearing this name, but he has stuck with Thirsk and Malton for the next election. Other party candidates have yet to be selected.
