Keane Duncan
Keane Charles Duncan is an English Conservative politician who was the Conservative Party's 2024 [York and North Yorkshire mayoral election|2024 candidate] to be Mayor of [York and North Yorkshire].
He served as Leader of Ryedale District Council from May 2019 to February 2021, taking the role at the age of 24, making him the youngest council leader in the country.
He lives in Malton, is openly LGBT+ and previously worked as a deputy news editor for the Daily Star.
Political career
Duncan studied at the University of York and was Chairman of the University of York [Conservative and Unionist Association] for 2014–2015.He was elected in the Ryedale District Council election">Ryedale">Ryedale District Council election, aged 20. In the 2017 [North Yorkshire County Council election] he became the youngest member of North [Yorkshire County Council].
Duncan stood for re-election in the 2019 Ryedale [District Council election]. He retained his ward and was appointed Leader of the Council. During his term, Conservative councillors stated their opposition to fracking and called for a moratorium in Ryedale. He supported 2019–2023 structural changes to [local government in England|proposals to create] two new unitary authorities for York and North Yorkshire but stood down as Leader in protest at proposals to increase Council Tax.
In 2022, he was 2022 [North Yorkshire Council election|elected] for the Norton-on-Derwent division of the new, unitary North Yorkshire Council. He was subsequently appointed to North Yorkshire County Council's Executive with responsibility for highways and transportation, a role he continued to hold at North Yorkshire Council.
Duncan was selected by the Conservative Party as its candidate in the May 2024 election for Mayor of York and North Yorkshire.
Duncan took a novel approach to campaigning, carrying out a tour of North Yorkshire, aiming to visit 1,000 communities in 100 days. His policy of nationalising the Grand Hotel in Scarborough raised concerns over its feasibility, and how conservative the threat of compulsory purchase was. In response, Duncan claimed that a new Mayoral Development Corporation would be established with the legal powers to seize the hotel from Britannia, then to deliver the necessary private sector investment for the plan to work. His campaign was highlighted in The Guardian for its policies designed as “click bait” to attract attention on social media, and he was criticised in the same article by a local journalist for failing to answer questions about the feasibility of his policies.