2021 Year In Review: Kim Leadbeater's win deflates Boris Johnson's Hartlepool bounce

MAY

After months of restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, life began to tentatively return to some semblance of normality as a key ‘unlocking’ step took place.

The changes allowed up to six people or two households to meet indoors and up to 30 outside, while cinemas, museums and children’s play areas were allowed to reopen. Foreign holidays to ‘green list’ countries were given the go-ahead while the public were advised to make “informed personal decisions” on whether or not to start hugging loved ones again.

Up to 30 people were allowed to attend weddings while care home residents were allowed to have up to five named visitors, including two people at once provided they were tested for Covid.

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North Yorkshire farmer Jill Mortimer caused a huge electoral shock in early May as she became the first Conservative MP to represent Hartlepool.

Ms Mortimer defeated Labour rival Paul Williams by almost 7,000 votes – plunging Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party into crisis.

Ms Mortimer, a former Hambleton councillor, hailed a “truly historic result” and said: “Labour have taken people in Hartlepool for granted for too long.” The Conservatives marked their victory by inflating a 30-ft model of Boris Johnson in the town.

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There was better news for Labour in the West Yorkshire mayoral election, which was comfortably won by Batley and Spen MP Tracy Brabin.

However, local elections saw Labour lose overall control of Sheffield Council, with leader Bob Johnson among those to lose his seat. It resulted in Labour and the Greens entering into a power-sharing agreement on the council while voters in the city also backed a referendum calling for a shake-up of how decisions were made.

Instead of the ‘strong leader’ and cabinet model that had been in place, voters backed the idea of decisions being taken by committees by a near two-thirds majority. Labour managed to cling to control of Rotherham Council but the Conservatives went from zero to 20 seats to become the largest opposition party.

JUNE

World leaders met for the G7 summit in Cornwall with promises to provide one billion Covid vaccine doses to poorer countries among the pledges that came out of the conference.

In the first face-to-face meeting of global leaders for two years, the G7 nations recommitted to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest and eliminate most coal power.

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Plans to go ahead with a “full unlocking” from Covid restrictions on June 21 were delayed for four weeks.

Ministers had hoped to be able to go ahead with lifting all legal restrictions on social contact, allowing venues and events to operate without capacity limits and removing a cap on guest numbers at weddings.

But reopening was delayed to allow more people to get their second vaccinations in response to the growth of cases of the Delta variant.

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Health Secretary Matt Hancock resigned from his post after footage emerged of him kissing a colleague in breach of social distancing rules.

Mr Hancock said the Government “owe it to people who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down”. Sajid Javid was appointed as Mr Hancock’s replacement in the post.

JULY

Following Tracy Brabin becoming West Yorkshire mayor, Labour faced a tricky by-election to hold onto her Batley and Spen seat which the Tories were targeting as their latest ‘Red Wall’ gain.

But Kim Leadbeater, the sister of Jo Cox who had represented the constituency before she was murdered in 2016, managed to overcome expectations to hold the seat for Labour by just 323 votes from Conservative candidate Ryan Stephenson.

It followed a bitter by-election campaign marred by acrimony, personal abuse and allegations of dirty tricks as former Labour MP George Galloway stood in the hopes of toppling Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader.

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‘Freedom Day’ from Covid rules finally arrived for England on July 19 as almost all legal restrictions on social contact were removed.

While Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped the roadmap out of lockdown would prove to be “irreversible”, he added that people needed to proceed with caution as “this pandemic is not over”.

Under the changes, nightclubs were allowed to reopen for the first time since March 2020.

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Devastating flooding across Europe left hundreds dead after extreme rainfall linked to climate change saw rivers across the continent burst their banks and cause devastation in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said of the damage: “It is shocking – I can almost say that the German language doesn’t have words for the destruction that’s been wreaked.”

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England’s uplifting Euros campaign ended on a sour note despite the team surpassing expectations to reach the final, which they ultimately lost on penalties to Italy.

The build-up to the game was marred by hundreds of drunken ticketless fans breaking into Wembley to watch the match while after the final whistle, England players who missed penalties were subjected to racial abuse on social media.

AUGUST

The world’s attention turned to Afghanistan as the Taliban returned to power and coalition forces led by the US departed after 20 years to leave the country anxiously facing an uncertain new future.

The US handed back the country to the same militant group it had sought to root out when it invaded in 2001.

More than 120,000 civilians were evacuated within two weeks. As the evacuations were taking place, a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport by a group linked to Islamic State killed more than 180 people, including 13 US soldiers.

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A bleak report by scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was described as signalling a “code red for humanity” as it warned of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding in the coming years.

But it also said that a catastrophe could be avoided if the world acts quickly to cut greenhouse gas emissions and stabilise rising temperatures.

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After two years of enforced cancellations due to Covid, it had been hoped the Tour de Yorkshire cycling race would be returning to the region in 2022.

But organisers Welcome to Yorkshire and ASO announced that a failure to reach an agreement on who would foot the bill for the event meant it would not be going ahead next year – potentially meaning it will never return.

The Tour had first been staged in 2015, following Yorkshire’s success in hosting the Tour de France the previous year.

Read more:

2021 Year in Review: Part 1 - January to April

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