Labour has won in Rishi Sunak’s “backyard” of York and North Yorkshire in what is set to look like a humiliating defeat for the Conservative Party in this year’s local elections.
Labour mayor David Skaithe was elected as the region’s first leader with 35.1 per cent of the vote, compared with the Tory candidate’s 27.3 per cent.
Mr Sunak is the MP for Richmond, North Yorkshire. A Labour Party spokesperson said the prime minister’s own constituents had chosen Labour over the Tories.
“This is a truly historic result in York and North Yorkshire. Keir Starmer’s Labour party is now winning in Rishi Sunak’s backyard,” a Labour spokesperson told The Independent.
It comes after Sir Keir urged Sunak to “make way” and call a general election, as he hailed a “seismic” by-election win in Blackpool South on Friday morning.
Sir Keir said Labour’s win, in the contest to replace ousted Tory MP Scott Benton, was “truly historic” and the “most important result” nationally.
The Tories have lost 228 councillors across the country so far, compared with a Labour gain of 99. Fifty-five out of 107 councils have been accounted for.
Houchen could ‘absolutely’ work with Starmer and ‘forgot’ blue Tory rosette
Ben Houchen said he could “absolutely” work with Sir Keir Starmer if the Labour leader becomes prime minister, but denied “trying to pretend” he was not Conservative during his mayoral election campaign.
The winning Tory candidate in the Tees Valley contest appeared to praise the opposition’s position on devolution, saying it would give him “more autonomy” after his victory on Friday.
But he said “people know round here I’m a Conservative” when asked about apparent efforts to distance himself from the Tory Party brand and instead run on a highly personal platform.
Lord Houchen was the only candidate on stage not to wear a party rosette at the Tees Valley count, saying later he “forgot”.
“I have done at previous elections and the honest answer is I didn’t have one and I forgot it. But I’ve got my blue socks on and my blue tie on,” he told Sky News.
“The idea that we are trying to pretend I’m not Conservative, I mean people know round here that I’m a Conservative, but thankfully what we’ve seen today is they also know that I’m a Teessider, and I’ll put Teesside first, I’ll put local people first and I’ll do what’s best for the local area.”
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Labour wins North East mayoral election
Labour’s Kim McGuinness won the new North East mayoral election with a majority of 58,399 over independent Jamie Driscoll.
She polled 185,051 votes (41.27 per cent), ahead of Mr Driscoll, the former Labour North of Tyne mayor, who was blocked from standing for the new post by the party, with 126,652 votes.
Conservative Guy Renner-Thompson was third on 52,446, with Reform UK on 41,147, the Lib Dems on 25,485 and the Greens on 17,631.
Labour wins in Sunak’s backyard
Labour has won in Rishi Sunak’s “backyard” of York and North Yorkshire in what is set to look like a humiliating defeat for the Conservative Party in this year’s local elections.
Labour mayor David Skaithe was elected as the region’s first leader with 35.1 per cent of the vote, compared with the Tory candidate’s 27.3 per cent.
Mr Sunak is the MP for Richmond, North Yorkshire. A Labour Party spokesperson said the prime minister’s own constituents had chosen Labour over the Tories.
“This is a truly historic result in York and North Yorkshire. Keir Starmer’s Labour party is now winning in Rishi Sunak’s backyard,” a Labour spokesperson told The Independent.
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Sunak congratulates Tory mayor
Rishi Sunak has congratulated re-elected Tory Mayor Ben Houchen despite the Tees Valley candidate not acknowledging him during his victory speech.
Mr Sunak welcomed his “friend” and claimed Tees Valley wanted the Tory party to stick to the “plan that’s working” in a post on X.
This is despite Mr Houchen avoiding any mention of his party or Rishi Sunak as he thanked voters for “backing my plan for the next four years”. He also claimed to have forgotten to wear a blue rosette during the speech.
Mr Sunak said on X: “Huge congratulations to my friend Ben Houchen. Tees Valley want us to stick with the plan that’s working: Jobs up. Airport saved.
“Steelmaking back. Darlington Economic Campus. Excited for Ben to keep delivering more jobs and opportunities for local people.”
Defiant Rishi Sunak argues he can still win general election
A defiant Rishi Sunak has argued that he can still win the general election, despite predictions he is on course to lose a near ‘catastrophic’ number of council seats. He pointed to results in Harlow and the Tees Valley.
Asked whether he needed to convince his own party he could do better when it came to a general election, a defiant Mr Sunak said: “If Keir Starmer was in Harlow on Wednesday saying that that was a place he needed to win in order to win the next general election – that hasn’t happened.
“We still haven’t got results from places like Tees Valley with the mayoralty results, which again is a key battleground.” Just minutes later his party won the race for Tees Valley mayor.
Tory mayor ‘forgot’ to wear a blue rosette during victory speech
Ben Houchen has told Sky News that he “forgot” to wear a blue rosette when he went up to accept his victory in the Tees Valley mayoral race.
He said: “I was wearing a blue tie and blue socks”. Houchen held on over Labour’s Chris McEwan with 53.6 percent of the vote in the north east region around 20 points less than he got in 2021.
However, in his speech he avoided mention of his party or Rishi Sunak as he thanked voters for “backing my plan for the next four years”. Later on Sky News, he conceded that it had been “a shared effort”.
