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May 2024
"I'm in it to win it," says Labour candidate in Harrogate and Knaresborough
You’d be hard pressed to find a parliamentary constituency in the north of England less traditionally Labour than Harrogate and Knaresborough.
The party has never finished higher than third at a general election, polled just 9.6% in 2019 and even finished fourth behind UKIP in 2015.
But the landscape has changed: nationally, the party is riding high in the polls and Labour’s David Skaith was elected mayor of York and North Yorkshire this month. Is Harrogate and Knaresborough, however, a bridge too far?
The party unveiled Conrad Whitcroft as its candidate hours before Rishi Sunak announced the general election would be held on July 4.
Labour has designated Harrogate and Knaresborough a non-battleground seat, meaning it won't be deploying too many resources. Don't expect to see Keir Starmer posing for photos outside Bettys.
Mr Whitcroft is aware of the rumours. He jokes:
But he insists he isn't making up the numbers:
The Lib Dems claim it is a two-horse race between them and the Conservatives. Even some Labour supporters are thinking of voting tactically for Lib Dem candidate Tom Gordon as the best way to oust Conservative Andrew Jones.
But Mr Whitcroft says the area would be better served by him rather than Mr Gordon as MP:
Local priorities
Mr Whitcroft began campaigning for the Labour Party aged 16 in his native Northampton. He moved to York to study politics at university and has remained there since. He is now a propositional development manager at insurance firm Aviva.
He was elected as a City of York councillor last year and will be just 25 years old on polling day. He was too young to vote for or against Brexit but says he would have opted to remain.
There has been an influx of twenty-something politicians of various political colours since the start of last year. The Lib Dems selected Mr Gordon as its candidate; Labour's Keir Mather won the Selby and Ainsty by-election and Conservative councillor Keane Duncan overseas highways on North Yorkshire Council.
Mr Whitcroft says many people of his generation were politicised by the seriousness of covid, adding:
Mr Whitcroft with party supporters.
A member of Harrogate-born Mr Skaith's mayoral campaign team, he applied to be a Labour parliamentary candidate anywhere in North Yorkshire. Two weeks ago he was told to expect to be chosen for Harrogate and Knaresborough, subject to confirmation from the party's governing National Executive Committee.
He was formally adopted in front of 30 or 40 party members at St Robert's Club in Harrogate on Tuesday night last week.
Mr Whitcroft cites cleaning the River Nidd, hospital waiting lists, congestion, potholes and establishing a municipal bus service as priority issues. What about the Harrogate Station Gateway?
He says he supports the emphasis on active travel "but the implementation has been really poor", which he says is symptomatic of "Conservative-run incompetence" in local government.
He enthusiastically backs Mr Starmer's plans to build 1.5 million houses over the course of the next parliament:
He talks about this being the start of building up Labour locally:
But short-term, is the idea of Labour winning in Harrogate and Knaresborough fanciful?
He insists he is the man to do it and says his City of York council victory in Fishergate over a long-standing Green councillor "proves I can win".
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