THERESA May’s announcement that Britain was facing a snap General Election came as a surprise to The Press’s newsroom - as it did to people around the country.
Our coverage began straight away, with reaction from York politicians hearing the news, and a rolling live blog updating our readers as more reaction came.
Strong comments came from the then York Central MP Rachael Maskell. She branded the Prime Minister “reckless” for going to the polls when she should have been completely focused on Brexit negotiations.
As the weeks have progressed, this election campaign has already proved more exciting and eventful in York than the last – only two years ago.
In the space of two days this week both Theresa May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have visited York and we’ve spoken to them both.
Because of our commitment to impartial and unbiased journalism, we’ve given those two very different visits equal coverage – once again with live blogs online, and extensive print coverage the following day.
The story moved on again yesterday, with the news the Green party was withdrawing its candidate in York Central to avoid “splitting the vote”. It also emerged that UKIP was not fielding candidates in either of the city’s constituencies, throwing up some interesting electoral maths in both patches.
In 2015, the Greens and UKIP got 9586 votes between them in York Central– 20 per cent of the vote. With Rachael Maskell defending a majority of 6,700 to keep the seat in Labour hands, where those 9586 chose to cast their ballot in 2017 could make a big difference.
Over in York Outer, UKIP took 5251 votes in 2015 – 9.7 per cent of the vote – so less significant for Conservative Julian Sturdy’s 13,000 majority – but certainly not to be sniffed at.
As the campaign progresses we’ll be following developments closely, and we want to cover the issues that matter most to our readers. Crucially, we will stick with an impartial approach – questioning and scrutinising all of the parties equally, regardless of their political persuasion.
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