Labour has won the first election for mayor of York and North Yorkshire by almost 15,000 votes.
York businessman David Skaith won with 66,761 votes.
Overall, 191, 279 votes, or just under 30% of the total electorate, were cast in the race to be the region’s first mayor.
Conservative candidate Keane Duncan placed second place with 51,967 votes with Lib Dem candidate Felicity Cunliffe-Lister in third on 30,867.
Following the announcement of his triumph, Mr. Skaith thanked his team, fans, and wife Alice, as well as his two children, while stepping onto the platform at the Convention Centre in Harrogate.
“We have a fantastic chance to unite York and North Yorkshire and truly develop into one region.
“The message is clear from York and North Yorkshire that we want change.”
“I’m very disappointed, as you can imagine, but we fought a fantastic campaign and reached corners of the county I never knew existed,” Mr. Duncan remarked in response to his defeat.
After winning, Mr. Skaith told the BBC, “I’ve always been motivated by the idea that this is for York and North Yorkshire.
It’s also a little bit personal.
“I own a company.”
He added: “I think we do want to see different people in politics, I certainly do.
“I’ve been completely fed up with the last 14 years of where we’ve been going.
“People just saying random things and not sticking to any ideas and just putting soundbites out. “
Mr Skaith said: “Coming into this from a different background will be a great positive.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves met with Mr Skaith in Northallerton after his victory.
The Labour leader said: “People are fed up with a failed government, so they’ve registered that here in the vote that they’ve cast today.”
He added: “It is a historic victory.
The Labour Party would not normally have been successful in these places, but we have succeeded in making it happen.”
Analysis: Richard Edwards, BBC North Yorkshire Political Reporter
The significance of this election outcome cannot be emphasised.
The current mayor of North Yorkshire is Labour, and the prime minister is Rishi Sunak.
And in order to get there, David Skaith of Labour and his colleagues had to gradually reduce the Tory majority in North Yorkshire, which had long since factored into the outcomes of regional and national elections.
Not in the future.
The Conservatives almost lost a majority that they had held for a generation in the elections for the new North Yorkshire Council, which was the first indication of this outcome.
Then, in the Selby and Ainsty by-election held in July 2023, Labour’s Keir Mather defeated a huge Tory majority.
Even with those hints, this is still a tremendous victory for Labour.
They succeeded by using a conventional door-to-door approach and exercising caution while committing large sums of money.
Compare that to Conservative Keane Duncan’s high-profile campaign, which included a number of expensive items, such as the purchase and restoration of Scarborough’s Grand Hotel.
When they saw that, some conservative Tories just did not think it was true.
Mr. Duncan was up against the political winds of a nation that did not favour him.
Mr Skaith, 35, was born and raised in Harrogate and studied sport at York St John’s University.
After a stint living in Brighton while his then girlfriend, now wife, trained to be a teacher, Mr Skaith returned to Yorkshire and opened the men’s clothing store Winstons of York in 2015.
He got involved in politics after his father died during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a tweet Rachael Maskell, Labour MP for York Central, said: “He is just the person to lead us across North Yorkshire in delivering the economy, services and future- for our communities.
“I am so looking forward to working with him.”
Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor, called the Labour victory a “fantastic result”.
Many saw North Yorkshire as a Conservative bastion because Richmond, the home constituency of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is located in the county.
“Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is now winning in Rishi Sunak’s backyard,” a Labour Party official said, calling the outcome “truly historic”.
“The prime minister’s own constituents have taken a look at the two parties and chosen Labour.”
In order to launch a social media campaign, Mr. Duncan, 29, drove a van to several locations throughout the county and made promises to purchase the Grand Hotel in Scarborough and cover the cost of free parking in the local towns.
The Grand, according to Mr. Duncan, has become the “shame of Scarborough” after once ranking among the “largest and most luxurious hotels in Europe.”
In addition, if elected, he declared that he would think about being the first Conservative mayor to franchise bus services.
Before taking on the role of executive member for transport at North Yorkshire Council in 2022, Mr Duncan, a former Daily Star writer, served as the leader of Ryedale District Council from 2019 to 2021.
