Reform UK wins landslide town council victory

Reform UK has won a landslide victory in Scarborough's first ever town council election, winning 11 of 15 available seats.

The Labour Party won two seats alongside two Independent candidates, while Sir Robert Goodwill, who stood down as the town's Conservative MP in 2024, failed to win a seat.

Thomas Murray, who won for Reform in the town's Castle ward, said he wanted to "reverse the decline" and help out the "most vulnerable people", adding that his win offered the chance for "a bit of pride" to return to Scarborough.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats won in Harrogate's first ever town council election, taking 15 of the 19 wards available.

Following his win in Scarborough, Murray said he wanted to stop "nonsensical overspending" by keeping "an eye on public finances" for the people of the town.

Scarborough had once been "the greatest resort town in the UK", he said.

"I think it can still be that, it just needs a bit more investment in the right places."

Murray said he would focus on helping "the most vulnerable, because Scarborough has a lot of areas of deprivation, and chances for young people just aren't there anymore".

Sir Robert, who failed to get elected to Scarborough's council, said he saw votes for Reform UK in the town as a "protest vote".

"Reform have done very well, but I don't believe people are really sure what their policies are," he said.

In Harrogate, the Lib Dems vowed to give local residents a voice after winning control of the new town council.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, there were loud cheers at Friday's count at Harrogate Convention Centre as the results were announced.

The party took 15 of the 19 single-councillor wards, while the Conservatives won two wards, and Reform won one, with the remaining ward being taken by an Independent candidate.

Felix Andrew, Liberal Democrat campaign manager for the election, said: "It's a resounding victory, there's no doubt about it.

"It's very exciting and gives us the mandate to fight for Harrogate.

"The message we put across in the campaign is that we want to be giving a voice for Harrogate."

North Yorkshire Council executive member Michael Harrison was one of the two Conservatives to win a seat on the new authority in Harrogate.

But it needed a recount before he was declared the winner of the Saltergate ward, which he took by just two votes from Lib Dem candidate Nathaniel Slater.

The elections in Harrogate and Scarborough took place following the launch of the unitary North Yorkshire Council and the abolition of the county's town and borough councils in 2023.

That left only Harrogate and Scarborough without a second tier of local government, with town and parish councils already established elsewhere in the county.

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