The Regional Monitor

Asignificant number of the MPs representing the Yorkshire and Humber region also sit on the front benches in the House of Commons – or have memories of doing so.
As a change of Labour leadership approaches – along with a change in constituency boundaries – a number of long-serving parliamentarians have already announced that they will not fight another general election. These include Morley and Rothwell MP Colin Challen, who will instead be working with Sir Nicholas Stern to focus on the economics of climate change and global warning.
As he prepares to stand down, however, the Labour candidate for the new seat of Morley and Outwood is likely to be Treasury minister Ed Balls, whose Normanton constituency will disappear under the changes. However, his wife Yvette Cooper – who is also housing minister – is expected to remain MP for Pontefract and Castleford.
Although Gordon Brown is widely expected to succeed Tony Blair as prime minister, when Hull East MP John Prescott steps down as deputy prime minister, a much more open contest is expected. So far, six MPs have confirmed that they will be candidates, including two Yorkshire and Humber MPs – Leeds Central MP and international development secretary Hilary Benn, and Hull West and Hessle MP Alan Johnson, who also serves in cabinet as education secretary.
But these are not the only frontbench MPs in the region: Yorkshire MPs also include sports minister Richard Caborn, MP for Sheffield Central; Cabinet Office minister Ed Miliband, representing Doncaster North; fellow Doncaster MP Rosie Winterton, who serves as a health minister; and equalities minister Meg Munn in Sheffield Heeley.
There are also a number of backbench MPs in the Yorkshire and Humber region who have realistic hopes of a glittering Westminster career: they include John Healey, already a Treasury minister, who represents Wentworth; Shahid Malik representing Dewsbury, Home Office minister and Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe, and health minister Caroline Flint, representing Don Valley in Parliament.
But there are also those in the Yorkshire and Humber region who have enjoyed a frontbench career, but who, for now at least, reside on the bac benches in the Commons. They include former home secretary David Blunkett (Sheffield Brightside), former Europe minister Denis Macshane (Rotherham) and former environment minister Elliot Morley (Scunthorpe).
Despite all these high-profile Labour MPs, the region is not completely dominated by the party. There is also a sizeable number of Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs representing Yorkshire and Humber seats.
Most notable of the Conservatives, arguably, are former party leader-turned shadow foreign secretary William Hague, who has represented Richmond in Yorkshire since a 1989 by-election; and shadow home secretary David Davis, who came second in the party’s leadership campaign, and who has been in the Commons since 1987, representing Haltemprice and Howden for the past decade.
Other Conservatives include Skipton and Ripon MP David Curry, who served briefly in Michael Howard’s shadow cabinet in the environment portfolio, and shadow education minister Anne McIntosh, who represents Vale of York at Westminster. But there are also three new Conservative MPs in Yorkshire and Humber – Philip Davies, who beat government minister Chris Leslie to become MP for Shipley; Robert Goodwill, who defeated incumbent Labour MP Lawrie Quinn in Scarborough and Whitby, and Graham Stuart in Beverley and Holderness.
Meanwhile, on the Liberal Democrat benches, Phil Willis has been joined by Nick Clegg, a former MEP who now represents Sheffield Hallam in Parliament and serves as the party’s home affairs spokesman. He is also tipped as a possible future party leader, but supported Sir Menzies Campbell in the leadership election. Gregory Mulholland is the third Liberal Democrat MP in Yorkshire and Humber, having won Leeds North West on a 9.6 per cent swing of the vote from Labour.
So what about local government? Which party dominates the authorities of Yorkshire and Humberside?
Of the three main political parties at Westminster, it is the Conservatives that come away with the most councils, controlling seven, including North Yorkshire County Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Bradford Metropolitan District Council. Meanwhile, Labour controls four councils – in Sheffield, Barnsley, Wakefield and Rotherham – and the Liberal Democrats control two, York Council and Kingston-upon-Hull City Council. But overtaking all three parties are the numbers of councils under no overall control – currently standing at 10. However, all this could change come May 3, when 20 of Yorkshire and Humber local
authorities face elections.
But commentators will be looking at the smaller parties just as much as whether the main parties can hold onto the councils they control, or add to their list. In Yorkshire and Humber, there are currently eight councillors from the British National Party, across four different local authorities: Leeds, Calderdale, the City of Bradford Council and Kirklees Council, three of which are up for election in May.
Although great strides have been made since the July 2001 race riots in Bradford – which were also seen in Oldham and Burnley – there remains a threat that the BNP could improve its share of the vote. In addition to the challenge (or threat?) from the British National Party, councillors from Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats could see a challenge from the rise of independent candidates. There are currently 103 independent councillors across Yorkshire and the Humber, on 21 councils.
Although the local elections on May 3 are likely to be overshadowed by results in elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, all three main parties face their own challenges in their bids to hold onto, and perhaps, gain control of councils not just in Yorkshire and Humber but across England. Meanwhile in Parliament, boundary changes could create challenges as the parties try to win newly-created constituencies. Yet unlike some regions, where the balance of power could shift, the number of Yorkshire and Humber politicians sitting on the front green benches in the Commons are likely to increase, rather than fall.