On 18th May 2023 East Riding of Yorkshire Council held it's AGM in which it elected a new leader of the council Anne Handley.
This extract of the meeting starts with Cllr Handley being the only nominee followed by a speech from Cllr Healy on the recent Ward Councillor Elections and about the next 4 year future for the council. The main theme of Cllr Healy's segment was "respecting the will of the voters" and gives the figures that approximately 125,000 residents (64% of voters) in the east Riding voted non-conservative candidates and "Voted for Change". However, this sentiment wasn't shared with the majority of councillors voted Cllr Handley to become the new leader of the council, leaving the East Riding once again in Conservative Control. The way councillors voted can be seen in the above video at 5:25.
Cllr Handley went on to tell the council about her background including stating her and her sister were "without doubt the poorest children in the school" along with the class system, working various jobs to help her mother with rent etc. Which seems to beg the question how someone form a working class background, such as she describes, has ended up as a conservative ward councillor/leader? She went on to talk about her clothing business she got a bank loan to start, joining the Hull College group, being a community figure in Goole including opening a food bank. The food bank seems rather ironic, given the conservative party is largely responsible for the need of so many more food banks to be set up in the country.
Cllr Handley summarizes by stating "Putting residents first will be at the heart of everything we do" as well as "supporting the most vulnerable in our communities" and "eliminating wasteful spending". The final part of the video is Cllr Handley announcing her new cabinet.
Only time will tell if the new leader is able to deliver the promises she makes, but anything could be possible now the East Riding is led by the oxymoron that is a "Working Class Tory"
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