STV for North Yorkshire

and the problem with rural areas

My STV solution to North Yorkshire is just the one constituency

North Yorkshire (to elect 4 MPs, covering the current constituencies of               Richmond and Northallerton; Scarborough and Whitby; Skipton and Ripon; Thirsk and Malton)

The Geography

And here I recognize a problem… In rural areas, STV constituencies are going to be large. This issue can be somewhat mitigated for an MP elected with a party colleague or two, but a candidate elected as the sole representative for their party will need a special kind of energy to cover such a vast area. It will be harder for them to be visible and accessible across the entire constituency.

There is a case for splitting this constituency in two, but an STV election with only two MPs is less satisfactory. A larger constituency with more MPs provides voters with more choices on who to approach with an issue, though in North Yorkshire, they might still have to travel far to meet the MP who can help them. This problem becomes even more acute in the north of Scotland, but in England, this is the largest area covered by one constituency.

The politics

Based on the 2019 election results, and indeed many previous elections, this is an area where Conservative voters dominate. In a good year they might even win win 3 of the 4 seats available. However, there are enough non-Tory voters here to ensure at least one representative from another party is elected. This would leave the MP who won that other seat with the unenviable task of covering the whole area as the sole representative of their party, but at least non-Conservatives in the area would have someone to show for their vote.

Of course, 2024 was different, and the one seat that the Tories sometimes lose, the seaside strip of Scarborough and Whitby, was indeed lost to Labour, with Skipton and Ripon nearly following suit. Under STV, I’d guess that would have left two Conservatives, one Labour, and one from another party—probably Reform in that election, for whom many rural Conservatives might have as a second choice. The Liberal Democrats have done better in the area in the past.

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