Week Ahead: One year since Conservative General Election victory as polls close for Labour’s West Yorkshire mayoral candidate

ANNIVERSARY

Saturday marks one year since the 2019 snap election that saw the Conservative Party secure a landslide victory.

Labour suffered a series of defeats to the Tories in Yorkshire heartlands, as it became clear that Boris Johnson’s gamble on a General Election, the first to be held in December for almost a century, had paid off and led to a conclusive majority.

In his first speech from Downing Street afterwards, the Prime Minister pledged to “unite and level up” the nation. He also hailed his “powerful new mandate to get Brexit done” as his party romped to victory in what was the third General Election in five years.

Under his leadership, the UK did, of course, go on to officially leave the European Union on January 31 this year, with the transition period set to end on December 31.

It has certainly been a challenging 12 months for the PM.

He has been forced to grapple with the unexpected battle against Covid-19, putting in place unprecedented measures to try to bring the virus under control and dealing with, in many cases, its catastrophic economic consequences.

That challenge looks set to go on, at least for the foreseeable future, as he continues his premiership.

Think-tank The Centre for Policy Studies will tomorrow hold a debate to discuss the political landscape a year after the victory.

It will look at how priorities such as Brexit, environmental policy and levelling up are wrestling for attention with the myriad of issues thrown up by the pandemic.

MAYOR

The Labour Party’s candidate to become West Yorkshire’s first elected metro mayor will soon be revealed, as polling is due to close on Friday.

The three hopefuls vying to be the candidate are Bradford council leader Susan Hinchcliffe, lawyer Hugh Goulbourne and Batley & Spen MP Tracy Brabin.

The shortlist was agreed by a joint selection panel made up of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee and regional officials following interviews and those selected have since been taking part in a campaign and hustings period.

Whoever is chosen as Labour’s candidate will be favourite to win the mayoral election next May, despite the Conservatives’ success in West Yorkshire in December’s General Election.

The elected mayor will gain control over a host of budgets and powers previously held by central government.

CLIMATE

The Prime Minister and the Secretary-General of the UN, António Guterres, are set to co-host a virtual climate summit on December 12 .

It comes after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted plans for the annual international UN climate meeting, which was due to be held in Glasgow this year but has now been postponed to November 2021 instead.

Saturday’s ‘landmark global event’, on the fifth anniversary of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, will bring together government leaders and the private sector, with the aim of rallying momentum and calling for greater climate action.

According to the UN, national governments will be invited to present “more ambitious and high-quality climate plans”, as well as COVID recovery plans, new finance commitments and measures to limit global warming to 1.5C.

It comes after the PM last month set out ambitious plans for a ‘green industrial revolution’. The Government said the blueprint would “allow the UK to forge ahead with eradicating its contribution to climate change by 2050”.

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