I read some of James Herriott's books when I was younger. And I got the sense that Yorkshire was this large, rural, isolated place. So its strange to see the people there as Labour supporters. I guess Yorkshire isn't a British version of Nebraska.
Those rural parts of Yorkshire are very Tory and always have been - constituencies like Skipton and Ripon, Ryedale, Vale of York and Richmond (the one in North Yorkshire, not the one in south-west London) are some of the safest Tory seats you'll find anywhere.
However, most of the population of Yorkshire is accounted for by the Labour-inclined big cities, like Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford and Hull, or by overwhelmingly working-class former mining towns like Rotherham, Doncaster, Wakefield, Barnsley etc. Hence Yorkshire is a strongly Labour region.
Cubby
,
Merseysider sums up the politics of Yorkshire very well
. Yorkshire is a rather diverse county, economically and politically.
Traditionally, it was divided into three 'Ridings': North, East and West. However, local government reorganisation in 1974 created:
1) North Yorkshire, which was basically created from the greater part of the North Riding. Largely rural with some leafy small towns, its politics, for the most part, are Conservative. This is the Yorkshire with which you are familiar; that of James Herriott and
All Creatures Great and Small . It has some mining around the town of Selby, but even here the Conservatives dominated until 1997
2) South Yorkshire, which was basically created from the southern part of the West Riding. It is dominated by the city of Sheffield and, as Merseysider says, the former mining town like Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham. As a county, politically, it is nothing short of a Labour fiefdom. In fact, it's nickname, which can be both flattering and unflattering depending on ones politics, is the 'Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire'
3) West Yorkshire, which was basically created from the core of the West Riding. It is dominated by the cities of Leeds and Bradford and a significant number of smaller towns, mostly, to their south. It also includes some fairly rural areas in the west of the county and some former mining areas in the south eastern part of the county. However, its politics are more diverse than that of North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, though it generally favors Labour
In the 1997 General Election, the Conservatives were wiped out in both South and West Yorkshire, while Labour made inroads in North Yorkshire
In South Yorkshire, the Conservatives lost their only seat - Sheffield Hallam to the Liberal Democrats; given a total of 14 Labour MP's and 1 Liberal Democrat
In West Yorkshire, the Conservatives lost 9 seats to Labour, giving Labour control of all 23 seats in the county. In 2005, however, they regained Shipley from Labour, while Labour lost Leeds North West to the Liberal Democrats
In North Yorkshire, the Conservatives lost Scarborough and Whitby and Selby to Labour to add to the City of York, which Labour had gained in 1992; while they lost Harrogate to the Liberal Democrats. In 2005, however, they regained Scarborough and Whitby from Labour
At the local government level, the most significant development of late has been the erosion of Labour support in the metropolitan boroughs of West Yorkshire, while the City of Sheffield was for a shortwhile controlled by the Liberal Democrats
In addition to North, South and West Yorkshire, 1974 local government reorganisation created:
1) Cleveland, which was created from the south eastern most part of County Durham (yes, the safest most Labour shire county in England) and the northeastern most part of the North Riding. It is currently dominated by Labour, the Conservatives having lost Stockton South and Middlesborough South and East Cleveland (formerly Langbaurgh) to Labour in 1997
2) Humberside, which was created out of the East Riding of Yorkshire and the northern most part of Lincolnshire, together with the former county-town of Kingston-upon-Hull. As far as the Yorkshire part goes, politically, it couldn't be any more polarised with Labour dominating Hull and the Conservatives the East Riding
The 1974 local government reorganisation also saw small parts of Yorkshire ceded to Cumbria, Lancashire
, County Durham and Greater Manchester
In 1986, the metropolitan county councils of South and West Yorkshire were abolished creating single-tier local government based on the existing metropolitan borough councils
In 1996 Cleveland and Humberside county councils were abolished (being artificial creations, they were never that popular) and broken into unitary authorities. Unitary status was also granted on an extended City of York. The bulk of the Yorkshire part of Humberside became known as the East Riding of Yorkshire, with Kingston-upon-Hull having its own unitary authority
Dave
