With the deadline for nominations passed, below is a table showing candidate details of all candidates standing in the Mayoral elections for West Yorkshire and for Tees Valley. The third column shows a link to the specific questions we sent to the candidate and the last column shows a link to either the candidate’s response to those questions or the latest update if no response has yet been received.
When we wrote to the candidates, we made it clear to them that we were offering them the opportunity to promote, via this website, their views on the specific issues we raised.
“As campaigners for devolution to Yorkshire, this election is of great interest to us, to our Members, to our followers on social media and to readers of our website, all of whom have concerns on particular matters. We are therefore giving each candidate the opportunity to have their views in respect of these specific issues published on our website for all to see.”
Whereas we greatly value the pro-active and constructive responses received from those candidates who have chosen to take up our offer, we are disappointed that some appear to have decided to not do so, despite receiving acknowledgements advising that they would respond soon and despite our sending follow-up communications to them when we had still not received response several days later. Of particular note here are the Labour candidates in both the West Yorkshire and Tees Valley elections and the Conservative candidate in the Tees Valley election. Whereas the Reform UK and the English Democrat candidates for West Yorkshire were declared as candidates quite recently, we first received acknowledgement from these Labour and Conservative candidates back in February/March.
We therefore ask you to consider: “Why have they chosen to not respond?”
The facts that we have contacted them more than once and have received acknowledgements from them eliminate the possibility that they have not received our communication. So could it be that they feel their responses would fail to meet the support of our readers? Could it be that they have no interest in the matters relating to our questions? Could it be complacency in thinking that they do not need to go to the effort of informing the electorate of their views on these matters in order to win the election? Could it even be that they treat the electorate with disdain? We leave you to your own thoughts on this but whatever the reason, by refusing to participate in a public debate they have denied the electorate their right to an informed vote.
Which candidate do you think is best for devolution in Yorkshire?
| Candidate | Political Party | Mayoral Election (Link to Questions) | Link to Response Or if none, Link to Updates |
| Ali, Waj | Reform UK | West Yorkshire | Updates |
| Brabin, Tracy | Labour | West Yorkshire | Updates |
| Buxton, Bob | Yorkshire Party | West Yorkshire | Response |
| Cooper, Andrew | Green Party | West Yorkshire | Response |
| Golton, Stewart | Liberal Democrat | West Yorkshire | Response |
| Hirst, Therese | English Democrats | West Yorkshire | Updates |
| Houchen, Ben | Conservative | Tees Valley | Updates |
| Jacobs, Jessie | Labour | Tees Valley | Updates |
| Robinson, Matt | Conservative | West Yorkshire | Response |