People across parts of the Midlands have cast their vote in the West Midlands mayoral elections.
Those registered to vote in the metropolitan boroughs of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, and Wolverhampton were allowed to vote in the election.
Mayors are typically elected for a period of four years, with no limit to the number of terms served. The candidates who stood in this year’s mayoral election were incumbent Andy Street (Conservative), Richard Parker (Labour), Siobhan Harper-Nunes (Green), Sunny Virk (Liberal Democrat), Elaine Williams (Reform) and Akhmed Yakoob (Independent).
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Labour’s Richard Parker defeated Conservative Andy Street to become West Midlands Mayor by just 1,508 votes – 0.25%.
He secured 225,590 votes with Mr Street on 224,082 and Akhmed Yakoob (Independent) on 69,621 (11.66%).
Elaine Williams (Reform) secured 34,471 votes (5.77%), while Siobhan Harper-Nunes (Green) was on 31,036 (5.20%) and Sunny Virk (Lib Dem) was last on 12,176 (2.04%) – with the turnout 29.57%.
The West Midlands mayor has powers and responsibilities in relation to transport, economic development, provision of skills training and housing.
The West Midlands mayoral election was held on the same day as the local elections, with more than 2,500 council seats up for grabs across 107 local authorities in England.
Mayoral elections took place in East Midland, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North East, London, West Yorkshire and Salford.
There were also police and crime commissioner elections across England and Wales – but not in Greater Manchester, London, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.
May’s local elections are the last big electoral test for all the political parties before the general election, which is expected to take place later this year.
