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Paul Bristow elected as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor

Paul Bristow elected as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor

BBC News02-05-2025
Conservative candidate Paul Bristow has been elected as Peterborough and Cambridgeshire combined authority mayor with 28.4% of the vote.Bristow, who came first out of five candidates to be mayor, said the win was an "amazing privilege".He said: "It's a big job and we really need someone who can grab the ball, run with it, and represent Cambridgeshire."The turnout was 33.1%.
This is the first mayoral election for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough held using the first-past-the-post, meaning the candidate with the most votes won.Bristow won 60,243 votes, followed closely by Reform UK candidate Ryan Coogan with 49,647 votes.Labour's Anna Smith came third (42,671 votes), followed by Lorna Dupre for the Liberal Democrats (41,611) and Bob Ensch for the Green Party (18,255).Bristow was the MP for Peterborough between 2019 and 2024, which he described as the "most important thing I've ever done in my life".He said: "I'm representing my home county now [...] hopefully this will be the most important thing I'll ever do.Bristow vowed to be a "campaigning mayor" and to improve infrastructure in the county.
In the last elections, in 2021, Labour's Nik Johnson won with 51.3% of the vote, under a supplementary system.Johnson beat the previous Conservative mayor James Palmer in the second round of voting, after no candidate received 50% of the vote initially. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was one of six areas that first held elections for combined authority mayors in 2017.
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