CANDIDATES in one of York’s key election battlegrounds are hoping for a relative triumph.

Alison Webb and her teenage daughter Daniella are both standing for the Green Party in City of York Council’s Westfield ward, where their opponents include the authority’s current and former leaders.

As polling day looms, both first-time candidates from Foxwood have become each other’s staunchest supporter.

“My job means I’m used to working with people and communities, and I see how councillors work and how influential they can be,” said mother-of-four Alison, 45, a home energy officer for Wakefield Metropolitan District Council.

“When I decided to stand and talked to Daniella about the party’s issues, she wanted to get involved as well. We have the same firm beliefs and interests and talk about politics all the time, and to have somebody from your family standing alongside you is great for moral support.”

Much of the pair’s election focus is on raising awareness of fuel poverty and promoting renewable energy, and Alison says: “If only one of us won, the one who lost would be great about it.

“I’d be really pleased for Daniella, as a young person, to be elected. But neither of us fits the councillor stereotype, so both of us breaking the mould would be fantastic.”

Daniella, who turns 19 on Friday and is completing a foundation course in art and design, hopes to start university in September, but now has political results to await as well as academic ones.

“By standing, I thought I could reach out to people my age who are disappointed in politicians and get them voting,” she said.

“My friends think what I’m doing is great and have been asking how I got into it.

“This is a chance to get into politics and show young people are interested, and my mum standing gave me the push to do it.

“We’re very close and we talk about the same things during the campaign as we usually do, so things haven’t really changed. Both of us being elected might feel strange at first, but it would be the ultimate goal.”