Restore names Burnley councillor Don Whitaker as candidate for "tier one" seat

Restore Britain has named Councillor Don Whitaker as its prospective parliamentary candidate for Burnley.

Announcing the selection on X at 10:16 BST on Saturday 17th October, Rupert Lowe wrote: "I'm delighted to announce Councillor Don Whitaker as our Restore Britain prospective parliamentary candidate for Burnley - another tier one seat."

He added: "We can win that constituency, and give Burnley patriots real representation in parliament."

Mr Whitaker sits on Burnley Council for the Whittlefield with Ightenhill ward. He represented the ward as a Conservative from 2021 before switching to Restore after the May local elections, according to the Lancashire Telegraph, which describes him as the only elected Restore Britain official in Lancashire.

Council row

In August he survived a bid to remove him as chair of a council committee. The Lancashire Telegraph reported that a motion brought by Labour group leader Mark Townsend and seconded by Liberal Democrat councillor Gordon Birtwistle argued that he had won the chairmanship at a "chaotic" appointments meeting in May, when members were unaware of his new affiliation.

The motion was withdrawn when the council reconvened on Thursday 6th August. Cllr Townsend said it did not seem "in the spirit of fairness and natural justice" to proceed, because the attendance had changed since the debate began in July. Cllr Birtwistle agreed to the withdrawal "with regret", the paper reported.

Mr Whitaker said afterwards: "It went well for me tonight, the motion to remove me from audits and standards and then subsequently as chair was rescinded by the proposer and the seconder."

The seat

At the 2024 general election, Labour's Oliver Ryan won Burnley with 12,598 votes, or 31.7%, a majority of 3,420 over the Liberal Democrats, according to official Parliament results. The Conservatives finished third on 20.3% and Reform UK fourth on 19.5%.

Image: Kevin Waterhouse, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons