The Conservative have gained overall control of Harrogate Council, it has previously been run as a Conservative minority administration. This has come about as a result of the defection of from the Lib Dems. The Lib Dem defector Cllr John Wren. He represents the Woodfield ward on Harrogate Borough Council and the Bilton Nidd Gorge ward on North Yorkshire County Council.
Subscribe
-
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
-
Like us on Facebook
-
Subscribe to our feed
-
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Most Read
Search
Op-eds
-
Welcome to my day: 27 November 2023 – there’s no need to burn down Parliament given what some MPs are doing to it… (Mark Valladares)
-
The Lib Dems (and Labour) could learn from Russell T Davies (Caron Lindsay)
-
Tom Arms’ World Review (Tom Arms)
-
The importance of signing a Faith Covenant (Michal Siewniak)
-
Observations of an ex Pat: Geert (Tom Arms)
-
"Malcolm Saville made me an archaeologist"
-
Microwave starts fire at Blists Hill Victorian Town
-
One million viewings but here comes the competition!
-
Sandwiches in Saltwell
-
Waiting for the bus
-
Fraser's weekly ward surgeries tonight! #dundeewestend
-
Let them eat cake
-
Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett and Bernard Cribbins: The Railway Children 40 years on
-
New Labour candidate for Leicester East stands down as a deputy mayor in London
-
'Big demands on our services... less and less money' Watford Mayor Peter Taylor defends local government on GB News
Recent Comments
James Fowler
Is the Dutch election result the end for PR? The sub text is that the PR debate here is very heavily skewed by the particular electoral history and system o...
Peter Martin
@ Joe, "The reliance on money printing is clearly not working for the Argentine population..." All money is either printed or, more usually, cr...
Peter Hirst
One consequence of the present conflict seems to be the further marginalisation of the Palestinians living in Gaza. They are increasingly seen as collateral dam...- Peter Hirst
Election campaigning and voter behaviour are both influenced by the voting system. introducing PR is essential because it is fairer as seats match percentage vo... 
Joe Bourke
Peter Martin, there is always an alternative view in political economy. The course to be adopted is decided by elections. Professor Hanke is an advocate of ...
4 Comments
I gather that two other councillors in Shropshire have also defected to the Tories. Oh dear.
At councillor level defections happen all the time, and in all directions.
There are all kinds of reasons why these things happen as well. Sometime ideological, sometimes personality bust ups, sometimes personal ambition, or a combination of the above.
I think what would be interesting would to find out what the national trends of defections are. That will tell us something about the state of the parties. Individual cases say very little.
I think Geoffrey is right….also I would be interested to know what people think of the view that such defections should automatically trigger a by-election…it is not just a case of correct representation but in this case the defection clearly has had much wider implications for the balance of power on the council as a whole…
I get the impression that the general trend in recent times has been from Lib Dems to Tories – not sure it tells us much, except that people who are more interested in personal advancement than principle will head in the direction of easiest re-election !!!
Of course people who are elected under a party label should offer themselves for re-election if they defect to another party. But they won’t !!!