York Central and Yorker Outer results: as it happened.

07/07/2024

Grace Bannister and Antonia Shipley report on the York Central and York Outer election results at the York Racecourse, speaking to candidates from across the political spectrum and providing exclusive interviews with the newly elected MP’s.

Article Image

Image by Grace Bannister

By Grace Bannister and Antonia Shipley

Nouse attended the York Central and York Outer election count at the York Racecourse on 4 July 2024. Alongside these results, the outcome of the Hull Road by-election was also announced; seeing a clean sweep for Labour across the city.

We eagerly awaited what was to be a long slog of a night; the first result to come in was Sunderland South at around 11:15PM, which saw Labour candidate and former Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Philipson take the win with 47.1% of the vote share (18,837 votes) t was not the Tories who came second, but the relatively nascent Reform UK with 29.1% 911,668) of the vote. This result was emulated shortly after in the Blyth and Ashington constituency, which saw Labour’s Ian Lavery re-elected with 49.6% (20,030 votes) and Reform coming in second with 26.9% (10,857).

Following this electoral triumph for Reform, Nouse spoke to the candidate for York Outer, John Crispin-Bailey, who was also one of the youngest candidates fielded by the party, age 21. When asked about what Reform had to offer to young people in the region, Crispin-Bailey responded “York is a big uni area, one of our biggest policies is removing interest from student loans completely, this will be a big difference for many people. Particularly if you’re a teacher or nurse, you need a degree but you’re not necessarily going to be earning the kind of money needed [to repay student loans] at the start of your career. We want to give better value for money in education and level the playing field further by extending the repayment period to 45 years, reducing the monthly burden of that bill, giving people that bit more money after bills and encouraging people to go to university.”

Nouse also asked what these early results meant for the party, to which he said “for us to not only come second, but massively outperform the Conservatives was massively positive. The exit poll suggests around 13 seats for us but I think we’ll secure about 15-20 seats.” Crispin-Bailey also expressed anticipation for the future of Reform: “obviously our goal is to be a big party, at the next election we want to be at the very least in opposition, build our movement and get the infrastructure that some of the big parties have. We’re going to be the unofficial opposition in this election and we want to be the official opposition, if not the government in the next.” Whilst Crispin-Bailey’s prognostication for Reform’s outcome in this election was somewhat overshot (as was the official exit poll’s calculations) with the party securing 5 five seats, they did place second in 103 seats. 93 of these were won by Labour; hence their seemingly small-scale victories are far from nugatory, it can be expected that they will watch in the side lines for Labour party blunders which can benefit them.

The Liberal Democrats, whilst unsuccessful in York, received their highest number of seats ever, with 72 in total - one could say that Leader Ed Davey’s leap (or bungee jump) of faith had succeeded, despite many believing that his idiosyncratic approach to campaigning lacked gravitas. Nouse spoke to the York Central Lib Dem candidate Alan Page, a businessman who spent time as an expat in Switzerland. Page addressed concern at the relatively low turnouts that were unveiled throughout the evening; “it looks like one of the lowest turnouts on record which is a concern in terms of people’s engagement in politics. But it might also be because when the Tories called this election was to ensure that students weren’t here. But it’s a real concern that people are not engaged.” Page then spoke about the constitutional changes laid out in the Lib Dem manifesto, stating that one of the features of Switzerland he would most want to emulate in the UK is the voting system: “a more proportional, democratic voting system. I think one of the things we’re going to find is that this will be a strange Parliament, where your vote isn’t necessarily reflective of the number of seats. In Switzerland there’s a much more proportional system, which seems much fairer to me: I think we need to change our voting system” he continued “The Liberal Democrat policy is to move towards a more proportional system. I think a single transferable vote, which is what they use in the Republic of Ireland, would be more successful, reflective, and would engage people more because you aren’t wasting votes. We don’t simply want to change the government, but the way we are governed”.

Vis-à-vis making parliament more representative and proportional, throughout the night there were some surprising results secured by Independents candidates up and down the country. Jeremy Corbyn Notably secured 7,247 more votes than the Labour candidate in Islington North. Labour big-hitter; Jonathan Ashworth, who was set to be Paymaster General in the cabinet and had served as Shadow Health Secretary during Covid, lost his Leicester South seat to pro-Palestinian Independent, Shockat Adam.

Whilst there were no electoral surges for Independents in York, Nouse interviewed Independent candidate, Ruari Kendall, who stood as a protest candidate in favour of mandatory and STAR voting. Nouse inquired about Kendall’s expectations for this general election, particularly as he was running within an electoral system he so vehemently opposed: “at the end of the day I never really had any illusions that I was going to win”. Instead, Kendall hoped to promote conversations about electoral reform, particularly, as he predicted, because “we’re going to have such a large Labour majority with such a low percentage of the vote.”

Seven hours after we arrived at the Race course, at 3:45AM, the results for York Central began to be announced. With party agents and councillors tentatively awaiting the outcome, the overall turnout was declared as 69% with 53,301 total votes, with and Labour were re-elected:

Rachael Maskell (Labour): 24,547
Richard Hudson (Conservative): 5,383
Lars Kramm (Green): 5,185
Cliff Bond (Reform UK): 4,721
Alan Page (Liberal Democrats): 3,051
Alasdair Lord (Independent): 133
Roger James (Independent): 131
Ruairi Kendall (Independent): 98
Leo Mayne (Independent): 84

Following the announcement, Maskell took to the podium to make her acceptance speech: “The Tories have brought the country to its knees, but today the country has raised their voices and raised their hope in a Labour government which will repair the damage and restore the pride we have in our country and the services that we cherish so much.” In an interview with Nouse, Maskell expressed gratitude at the selection, but “I recognize the responsibility that comes with that, and I will be getting to work later today to ensure that I knuckle down into the issues that people have been raising with me over the last few weeks. So we're looking forward to getting started, but under the Labour government, and that's the difference tonight has made. Each time I've been elected, we've always had a Conservative government, but this time around, we've got a Labour government which will address the needs of working people, rebuild our housing, ensure the NHS is functioning, and, of course, stabilise the economy.”

Maskell also regularly visits the University, and had many students involved in her campaign, hence Nouse asked what Labour truly could offer to young people; “Well, first of all, we're going to lower the voting age to sixteen, which I think is really important, because young people have such agency and brilliant ideas throughout politics. But also we need to address the issues that students are facing, the cost of living and the cost of student housing, also ensuring that renters have rights. So I'm looking forward to working with the Students Union and local students as much as possible with the University of York now being brought into my constituency. In light of Labour’s success across York and nationally, Nouse asked what this change will make to the city of York and the citizens who live there: “well the reality is, for the first time, we're all going in the same direction, because we labour at all levels, and I think that's the difference. When you can deliver, when you've got a government which understands, when we've got a party that is passionate about the needs of our city, [it] means that [after] all the battles I've had, instead of trying to bang down a door, I'll be pushing it open.”

York Central Conservative candidate Richard Hudson had expressed concerns, in his manifesto, about Reform splitting the Centre-right vote, after Labour MPs were elected in both constituencies, Nouse spoke with Hudson on this matter. He said, “obviously [Reform] have split our votes” and that “a vote for Reform actually just increased Labour’s vote”. Nouse also inquired on the trajectory of the Conservative party: “we were in a similar situation back in 1997 …we rebuilt and we’re going to do exactly the same in this situation: learn from the mistakes and lessons from this election”.

On whether Hudson saw Reform as a long-term threat he answered, “I don’t think they’re a long-term threat, it’s a purely protest vote, they’re a one-trick pony, their policies are not expansive enough to govern”.

It was not long until arguably the most anticipated results of the night were announced at around 4:30AM. Conservative Julian Sturdy had represented York Outer for 14 years, and only a few years ago the notion of the area turning red was almost a chimerical dream for the local party, with the area being ranked in the top 10 least deprived constituencies in the UK. The overall turnout was markedly higher than many areas across the country at 76%, with a total of 57,573 votes, and Labour’s Luke Charter’s secured a resounding victory:

Luke Charters (Labour): 23,161
Andrew Hollyer (Liberal Democrats): 5,496
John Crispin-Bailey (Reform UK): 5,912
Julian Sturdy (Conservative): 13,770
Michael Kearney (The Green Party): 2,212
David Eadington (Yorkshire Party): 260
Darren Burrows (Independent): 66
Keith Hayden (Independent): 141
Hal Mayne (Independent): 88

In his speech, Charters thanked Julian Sturdy for his service as MP and paid particular thanks to first time Labour voters - “and to you in particular I say thank you. I promise to repay the trust you’ve put in me.” Charters looked to his state-education at local Huntington School and paid thanks to the teachers he had there. In his own words, he is “a testament to what a Labour government can do, and therefore the power of a state education must be recognised.” Sturdy also made a short speech, expressing the honour and privilege he had felt to represent the area, whilst recognising “The Centre Right vote has split, and as a consequence Keir Starmer is going to get into number 10 with a large majority. The Conservative Party has to recognise that if we are going to rebuild - and I as a Conservative believe that we can and we should rebuild - it’s because it's important in any democracy that you have a strong opposition to take that country forward. I’m going to sign off from York for a while, I’m going to go back to farming for a bit - which I’m actually quite looking forward to … I might even get onto combine this summer”

Shortly after the result, Nouse interviewed new MP, Luke Charters, who highlighted his ambitions for young people under a Labour government: “young people are our future, our policies are inspired by that future generation, we want to bring six and a half thousand specialist teachers in, we want to protect the environment, net zero by 2030. We’ve got a huge package to offer the next generation, and we’ve harnessed the ideas of young people in developing these policies over the last few years, and certainly in my campaign in York with so many students involved. The support and energy young people have in politics is immense, and I’m really proud that we’re looking at votes at sixteen. The Conservatives have failed this generation, and now is the time for us to deliver for young people.”

We also asked what difference a Labour led York could look like for the City, with the election of Mayor David Skaith, a Labour council and now two Labour MP’s, Charter's responded “We’re all one team. And what’ve we got in common? We all love York. It is an immense place to live, to raise a family, we are all so passionate about it and we’re going to get its future back.”