Mayoral clean sweep for Labour
THE Labour Party celebrated a clean sweep of Yorkshire mayoral elections as results for West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire’s contests were confirmed over the weekend.
West Yorkshire re-elected Tracy Brabin to her second term in office, while South Yorkshire voters also chose to give a second term to Oliver Coppard.
The results followed a surprising victory for Labour in the new York and North Yorkshire mayoral contest in which David Skaith was declared the winner on Friday.
Ms Brabin won with more than 50 per cent of the vote, securing support from 275,430 members of the electorate, compared to Conservative Arnold Craven who polled 82,757 votes, and the Greens’ Andrew Cooper with 66,648 votes.
At the official declaration in Leeds's John Charles Centre for Sport, Ms Brabin described herself as a "free school meals kid who grew up in a council flat", adding the "sky was truly the limit" for others in West Yorkshire.
She said her second term would be about “delivery, delivery, delivery,” and that her focus would be on "franchising buses, mass transit and investing in our communities".
Mr Coppard also secured more than half of votes cast to ensure victory. He won 138,611 votes in South Yorkshire, beating the Conservatives’ Nick Allen, who won 44,945 votes into second place. Douglas Johnson, representing the Green Party, came third with 37,142 votes.
Upon his re-election, Mr Coppard said he will “join millions of people across the North in calling out this Government for their failure to level up our country”.
Of the 10 contests to select directly-elected metro mayors in England, the Conservatives won only one contest, with Tees Valley’s Ben Houchen securing a third term in office with a massively reduced majority, losing the support of 40,000 voters compared to 2021.
RISHI SUNAK must change his political course to remain in power as there is no time to change Tory leader, Suella Braverman has said following a bruising set of local election results.
The senior Tory urged the Prime Minister to move to the right in response to the poll defeats, which saw a shock victory for Labour in the West Midlands mayoral contest on Saturday night.
Labour’s Richard Parker seized victory from outgoing Conservative mayor Andy Street by a mere 1,508 votes.
The party also stormed to victory in the London mayoral poll, with Sadiq Khan securing a historic third term in office, with a majority of some 275,000 over Conservative rival Susan Hall.
“The plan is not working and I despair at these terrible results,” former home secretary Ms Braverman told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
“I love my country, I care about my party and I want us to win, and
I am urging the Prime Minister to change course, to – with humility – reflect on what voters are telling us, and change the plan and the way that he is communicating and leading us.”
Asked about whether she wanted to see a change in leader, Ms Braverman said: “I just don’t think that is a feasible prospect right now. We don’t have enough time and it is impossible for anyone new to come and change our fortunes to be honest.
“There is no superman or superwoman out there who can do it.”
Instead she called on Mr Sunak to “own” the result, adding: “Therefore he needs to fix it.”
Among the measures Ms Braverman has urged the prime minister to adopt to win back voters are further tax cuts and a cap on legal migration.
Yorkshire MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns, a Conservative former minister who submitted a letter of no-confidence in Mr Sunak in November, meanwhile suggested former prime minister Boris Johnson should return to to ease the party’s woes.
She told Sky News’s Sunday Morning
With Trevor Phillips: “I think now we’ve got to take the fight to Labour, I would like to see real common sense conservatism, honouring our manifesto commitments, I would like to see the return of Boris on the front line of politics, whether that’s going for a seat in the next election and being front and centre of our election campaign.”
Transport Secretary Mark Harper insisted the Conservatives still had “everything to fight for” ahead of the general election.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer hailed the result in the West Midlands
as “phenomenal” and “beyond our expectations”.
It came after his party dominated mayoral elections across England – winning in South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Liverpool and Greater Manchester.
Results are in from 106 of the 107 councils that held elections last Thursday and they show Labour has won 1,140 seats, an increase of more than 200.
The Lib Dems beat the Tories into second place, winning 521 seats, up nearly 100. The Tories are just behind on 513 seats, down nearly 400.