The region has been home to an impressive gallery of party personalities, several of whom receive extended entries. The spirited independence with respect to LPO HQ in London which the Yorkshire Regional Party has often demonstrated, and the relatively strong direction it has exerted over its constituency associations, would account for the formidable challenge maintained in the Region at successive general elections, even in the direst years of party fortunes. Yorkshire appears to have been rather less willing in 1950 to heed to the dictates of the Martell Plan than other regions. Even so, until the 1970s there were several Labour-held mining and industrial constituencies where the Party always declined to fight. Information on many candidates remains sparse. SDP candidates particularly, over 1983-87, seem to have been an anonymous battalion indeed.
The Lib Dems did not contest the constituency of Skipton & Ripon at the General Election of 2017 by semi-official agreement with the Green Party. No candidate was nominated for the by-election at Haltemprice in 2008, the sitting member having resigned over a matter of principle, with which the Lib Dems were in agreement. In common with other parties, the by-election at Batley & Spen in 2016 was not fought out of respect for the previous Labour incumbent who had died tragically at the hands of a racist murderer.
Lionel King