Wetherby & Easingwold.
Conservative and Unionist Party MP Alec Shelbrooke holds the seat on 39.4% of the vote — a split-council geography across 2 councils.
13 Jun 2026
Yorkshire market towns, Conservative-leaning, two-council seat
Wetherby and Easingwold is a rural Yorkshire seat where a third of residents live in scattered villages and farmland rather than any single town. Its largest centres are the market towns of Wetherby and Tadcaster, then Boston Spa, Easingwold and Boroughbridge. It is older and overwhelmingly White, with a median age of 48 and two in five residents degree-educated. Local services run across two authorities: North Yorkshire, the unitary council holding nine of the eleven wards, and Leeds, a metropolitan borough covering the two southern wards. That split is a defining feature of the place.
The local politics lean firmly to the Conservatives, who took nine of the eleven most recent ward contests, including Wetherby and Harewood in 2026. The Greens hold Ouseburn and an independent leads in Tadcaster, but the figures show little challenge to the pattern. The parliamentary picture is closer than the wards suggest: created on 2023 boundaries and first contested in 2024, the seat went Conservative on 39.4 per cent to Labour's 30.1, a margin near nine points. The sitting member, Alec Shelbrooke, has held this and a predecessor since 2010.
On the figures available, the seat sits in the safe-to-leaning column rather than in flux, the Conservative direction clear across both wards and constituency vote. Recent local coverage has had a parochial, casework-driven character, weighted towards flooding defences and road safety around the market towns rather than any national theme. That quiet, administrative profile fits a constituency whose politics have changed little, leaving the tighter parliamentary margin the one complication in an otherwise settled position.
Ward-level direction-of-travel: who controls what, who flipped recently, who holds the line. Each ward links to the council that runs it.
| Ward | Latest winner | Votes | Council | Last cycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appleton Roebuck & Church Fenton | Andrew Lee | 903 | North Yorkshire Con | May 2022 |
| Boroughbridge & Claro | Robert Windass | 936 | North Yorkshire Con | May 2022 |
| Easingwold | Nigel Antony Knapton | 1,015 | North Yorkshire Con | May 2022 |
| Harewood | Angela Jane Bond Wallis | 3,380 | Leeds Lab | May 2026 |
| Hillside & Raskelf | Alyson Baker | 1,050 | North Yorkshire Con | May 2022 |
| Huby & Tollerton | Malcolm Taylor | 1,030 | North Yorkshire Con | May 2022 |
| Ouseburn | Arnold Warneken | 1,328 | North Yorkshire Con | May 2022 |
| Spofforth with Lower Wharfedale & Tockwith | Andy Paraskos | 929 | North Yorkshire Con | May 2022 |
| Tadcaster | Kirsty Leanne Poskitt | 868 | North Yorkshire Con | May 2022 |
| Wathvale & Bishop Monkton | Nick Brown | 1,334 | North Yorkshire Con | May 2022 |
| Wetherby | Norma Harrington | 3,684 | Leeds Lab | May 2026 |
Source · Democracy Club · DCLEAPIL v1.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The seat’s population is concentrated in Rural & dispersed (30,191), with Wetherby (12,070) as the second pole. Total population across named built-up areas: 91,091.
Source · ONS Built-Up Areas · Census 2021
| Settlement | Pop. | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Rural & dispersed | 30,191 | large town |
| Wetherby | 12,070 | town |
| Tadcaster | 7,512 | town |
| Boston Spa | 6,173 | town |
| Easingwold | 5,306 | town |
| Boroughbridge | 3,405 | village |
Headline indicators.
| Indicator | Local | National | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employment rate | 56.1% | 57.1% | -2% |
| Owner-occupied | 77.0% | 63.1% | +22% |
| Private rented | 12.7% | 20.0% | -37% |
| Social rented | 10.2% | 16.8% | -39% |
Ethnicity.
Source · Census 2021
Population by age & sexCensus 2021 · 18 bands · click to expand
Source · Census 2021 (ONS) · % of usual residents; tick marks the median seat per band
Income tax contribution.
| Total income tax | £566m |
| Taxpayers | 55,000 |
| Median per taxpayer | £3,350 |
| Mean per taxpayer | £10,300 |
Source · HMRC SPI · ±8% confidence
Where the money flows back in.
This constituency is served by North Yorkshire and Leeds. Each council’s service spend, peer rank and supplier list lives on its own page — open from the meta block above or the compass strip below.
Move the income slider on My place to see income tax, NI, VAT and council tax against your earnings — the household lens.
Headline rate.
By category.
Source · data.police.uk · 3-month rate per 1,000 pop
2024 — full result.
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alec ShelbrookeWON | Con | 20,597 | 39.4 |
| Ben Pickles | Lab | 15,751 | 30.1 |
| Mike Jordan | Ref | 7,288 | 13.9 |
| Arnold Warneken | Grn | 4,529 | 8.7 |
| James Monaghan | LD | 3,351 | 6.4 |
| John Hall | Ind | 743 | 1.4 |
Turnout 52,259
Prior contests.
Created on the 2023 boundary review. 2024 General Election was the first contest on these boundaries.
Sources, methods & last update
2023 boundary review
DCLEAPIL v1.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Census 2021
National avg over 575 seats
±8% confidence
LSOA-aggregated · rolling 12mo