Yorkshire MEP told he cannot defend council seat

John and Rachael Procter have both been told they will not be candidates in next year's Leeds Council elections

THE CONSERVATIVES' deputy group leader in Leeds has not been selected to defend his seat in next year's council elections, The Yorkshire Post has learned.

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 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.

Coun Procter, 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.