Previewing the Eastfield, North Yorkshire by-election of 25th May 2023
“All the right votes, but not necessarily in the right order”
One by-election on 25th May 2023:
Eastfield
North Yorkshire council; caused by the resignation of Labour councillor Tony Randerson, who is seeking re-election as an independent candidate.
Three months ago this column covered the last election to the old North Yorkshire county council, in the division of Masham and Fountains. Now it’s time to say hello for the first time to the new North Yorkshire council, which has taken over the functions of the old district councils for the county of North Yorkshire. The new boss is the same as the old: in April the county council elected in May 2022 became North Yorkshire’s unitary council with nothing more than a change of headed notepaper.
Until May 2022 North Yorkshire county council had a large Conservative majority. Counties which have undergone local government reorganisation in the last few years have often seen a backlash against the Conservatives in the resulting elections, and North Yorkshire was no exception: the Tories kept control, but fell from 55 out of 72 seats to just 47 out of 90. A subsequent by-election loss to the Lib Dems has given the administration no margin for error.
This Tory collapse helped all opponents including the Labour party, which tripled its representation to 12 county councillors. The strongest area in the North Yorkshire council area for Labour is the seaside resort of Scarborough: Labour won four of the five county council divisions wholly within the town proper, plus two divisions covering adjoining areas which are clearly part of the Scarborough urban area. One of these is Eastfield.
Effectively a Scarborough suburb, Eastfield is one of the country’s more obscure towns. It’s located a few miles to the south of Scarborough in undulating ground to the east of Seamer railway station, and is the middle of an urban area made of four villages which have effectively run into each other. The town lies immediately to the north of the Eastfield Industrial Estate, a large business park which provides a large number of jobs: the McCain’s food factory and the Plaxton plant, which makes bus and coach vehicle bodies, both have Eastfield addresses although they lie outside the division boundary.
We can clearly see the effect of all this industry in the 2021 census. Eastfield — which was then a ward of Scarborough council, with the same boundaries as now — ranked 3rd in the UK for people with an “English and British only” identity, at 25.5%. It was in the top 40 for semi-routine occupations (19.2%), in the top 70 for lower supervisory and technical occupations (9.1%) and in the top 90 for part-time employment (16.8%).
It should probably come as no surprise that this working-class area votes for left-wing parties, although earlier in this century Eastfield was often closely fought between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. The current councillor Tony Randerson owes his start in elected office in 2013 to a series of fortunate events. In May 2013 the Lib Dem county councillor Brian Simpson sought re-election as an independent candidate, the opposition vote fragmented many ways and Randerson gained what was then Eastfield and Osgodby division for Labour with just 32% of the poll. In November 2013 the Lib Dems were due to defend a Scarborough council by-election in Eastfield ward, but their candidate had to withdraw at the last possible moment due to a family bereavement and there wasn’t time to nominate anyone else; that meant that Labour picked up an open seat at the by-election, with UKIP finishing in second place. The two remaining Liberal Democrat seats went to Labour and UKIP at the 2015 Scarborough council elections, and until today the Lib Dems hadn’t been seen here since.
Tony Randerson has very much consolidated the Labour position in Eastfield over his ten years in office. He was a member of Scarborough council’s cabinet until that council was abolished in April, and he was re-elected for a third term on the county council last year with a big lead of 73–22 over the Conservatives. Some of this will be a reflection of the current strength of the Labour brand, while some might be a personal vote for Randerson himself.
Well, we’ll find out in this by-election exactly what that mix of factors was. Tony Randerson quit the Labour party and the council in April in opposition to Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, and he is seeking re-election in this by-election as a left-wing independent candidate. The official Labour candidate is David Thompson. Standing for the Conservatives is Eric Batts, who fought the neighbouring division of Weaponness and Ramshill last year but actually held elected office until three weeks ago as a Conservative member of Vale of White Horse council in faraway Oxfordshire; he didn’t seek re-election in Oxfordshire this year, which was probably wise as the Vale of White Horse is now a Tory-free zone. Also standing on a long ballot paper are Will Forbes for the Greens, independent candidate Tim Thorne who has previously sought election in the Scarborough area for UKIP, and Erica Willett for the Lib Dems.
Parliamentary constituency: Scarborough and Whitby
ONS Travel to Work Area: Scarborough
Postcode district: YO11
Eric Batts (C)
Will Forbes (Grn)
Tony Randerson (Ind)
David Thompson (Lab)
Tim Thorne (Ind)
Erica Willett (LD)
May 2022 result Lab 703 C 215 Grn 41
Previous results in detail
If you enjoyed these previews, there are many more like them — going back to 2016 — in the Andrew’s Previews books, which are available to buy now (link). You can also support future previews by donating to the Local Elections Archive Project (link).
Andrew Teale is the Britain Elects Previewer and is webmaster of the Local Elections Archive Project.
