Councillor not selected by Conservative party

John Procter, who is also a Yorkshire MEP, lost out as Conservative members chose Wetherby mayor Norma Harrington to contest the Wetherby ward seat on Leeds City Council.

The other two Conservative sitting ward councillors, Alan Lamb and Gerald Wilkinson, were reselected.

Coun Procter’s wife Rachael, a Harewood councillor, was last month told she too would not be selected as a candidate for next year’s Leeds Council elections when every seat will be contested.

Councillors Ryan Stephenson and Matthew Robinson (Con, Harewood) received the backing of Conservative Party members for that ward.

Coun John Procter, 50, who was first elected to Leeds council in 1992, last year became one of Yorkshire’s six MEPs as he took the European Parliament seat vacated by Conservative peer Lord Kirkhope who moved to the House of Lords.