Ross Kemp on Wakefield and Doncaster's Three Musketeers, five things you might have missed on the election trail in Yorkshire

With just a few days to go until the General Election on December 12, The Yorkshire Post looks at some of the stories you may have missed on the campaign trail.
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Ross Kemp on Wakefield

There was a familiar face during a campaign event organised by Labour's Redcar candidate Anna Turley on Thursday. None other than actor and film-maker Ross Kemp, best known for his role as hardman Grant Mitchell in EastEnders.

It was a busy day for Mr Kemp, who was also out supporting Labour hopefuls Mary Creagh in Wakefield, Holly Lynch in Halifax and Toby Perkins in Chesterfield.

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One can only assume he is repeating his campaigning work from the 2017 General Election rather than recording what would be a somewhat lacklustre edition of his documentary series Ross Kemp on Gangs.

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Tory candidate is literally parachuted in to Wakefield to counter opponents' cla...

A breach of Truss

Liz Truss, the Secretary for International TradeLiz Truss, the Secretary for International Trade
Liz Truss, the Secretary for International Trade

While the row rages on nationally about Boris Johnson dodging interviews with both Andrew Neil and Julie Etchingham, in Yorkshire this played out on a smaller scale in Keighley on Wednesday.

After inviting The Yorkshire Post along to interview International Trade Secretary Liz Truss as she hit the campaign trail with Tory candidate Robbie Moore, our correspondent was told last minute the visit wasn’t going ahead and Ms Truss would not be available for interview. Disappointing, but with NATO in town Ms Truss’ talents were undoubtedly needed elsewhere.

So imagine our correspondent’s surprise when she saw later in the day Mr Moore merrily tweeting pictures of Ms Truss’ visit, which had just been moved a mile down the road to a different company. If Ms Truss was trying to stay incognito, a twitter ban for their candidate on the ground may have been advisable.

Creating a buzz

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The Liberal Democrats were not the only ones targeted by Extinction Rebellion’s pesky bees this week, after a swarm glued themselves to the party’s battle bus (which, ironically, was electric) in London.

A colony buzzed into the Grimsby office of the Brexit Party before sticking themselves to Nigel Farage’s battle bus outside.

The reactions were slightly different - while in London Jo Swinson took the time to discuss her party’s policies with the activists, Brexit Party volunteers in Grimsby seemed nonplussed and continued about their business.

Separately, the importers of the bus, Castleford-based Pelican Bus and Coach, were quick to get a PR win out of the saga. "We were ‘buzzing’ with excitement to see one of our coaches all over the news," said managing director Richard Crump.

Doncaster's three musketeers

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They may be fading in the polls nationally, but it hasn't stopped the Brexit Party's Yorkshire candidates from finding innovative ways to capture the public imagination.

York Central candidate Nick Skiler has taken to the streets in a 1966 Rover similar to the kind of vehicle driven by Huddersfield-born former Prime Minister Harold Wilson at the time of the first European referendum. He told The Yorkshire Post: "By campaigning in a 'politician's car' from that era, it's a subliminal reminder of past values of truth and integrity."

Meanwhile Paul Whitehurst, Andrew Stewart and Surjit Duhre, standing in the Labour-held seats of Don Valley, Doncaster North and Doncaster Central, dressed up as The Three Brexiteers in homage to the Alexander Dumas novel The Three Musketeers as part of what they described as "a message of hope and unity".

Given the dramatic resignations of two of its Yorkshire MEPs this week, it's unlikely the party motto will become "one for all and all for one".

Et tu, Austin?

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Former Labour MP Ian Austin isn't one to do things by halves. The pro-Brexit politician quit the party and became an independent MP earlier this year in protest at what he said was the Labour leader’s failure to tackle anti-Semitism.

And voters in the Yorkshire constituencies of Bassetlaw, Bolsover, Dewsbury, Keighley, Hull West and Hessle, Penistone and Stocksbridge and Rother Valley, will have had letters this week putting the boot into his old party.

"It has really come to something when I can no longer ask you to vote Labour", he wrote, adding: "The only way to get a government led by Boris Johnson so that we can get Brexit done."