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BBC News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Paul Bristow elected as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor
Conservative candidate Paul Bristow has been elected as Peterborough and Cambridgeshire combined authority mayor with 28.4% of the 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 60,243 votes, followed closely by Reform UK candidate Ryan Coogan with 49,647 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 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 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. Follow East of England news on X, Instagram and Facebook: BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks, BBC Cambridgeshire, BBC Essex, BBC Norfolk, BBC Northamptonshire or BBC Suffolk.
ITV News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- ITV News
Conservative Paul Bristow wins Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoral election from Labour
The Conservatives have claimed victory in the race to become mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, with ex-MP Paul Bristow winning the position from Labour. The former member for Peterborough won 28.36% of the vote, beating Reform's Ryan Coogan 23.37 % in second place. He replaces Labour's Dr Nik Johnson, who became mayor in 2021 but stepped down for this election. The four other candidates were Cambridgeshire County councillor Lorna Dupre for the Liberal Democrats, Cambridge City councillor Anna Smith for Labour, former construction company director Bob Ensch for the Green Party, and Reform UK's Ryan Coogan, a businessman and former local councillor. Mr Coogan is also standing in the elections for Cambridgeshire County Council and East Cambridgeshire Council. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said earlier on Thursday he would be disappointed if Labour did not win the mayoral election. What does a mayor do? The Combined Authority Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was first elected in 2017, with Conservative James Palmer holding the post until 2021 when he was defeated by Dr Nik Johnson. Combined authority mayors have powers over areas like transport, skills and planning across the whole of their region, devolved from Westminster. More than half a million people were eligible to vote and the winner will have control of a multi-million pound budget to promote economic growth. There were six mayoral elections across the UK on Thursday, with voters in Doncaster, North Tyneside, the West of England, Hull and East Yorkshire, and the newly created seat of Greater Lincolnshire having their say. What happened in the last round of mayoral elections? This is the first time the mayor has been elected by the first-past-the-post electoral system which is used to elect MPs, in which the candidate with the most votes wins. Previously, a form of proportional representation called the single transferrable vote was used, meaning voters number the candidates on their ballot paper with their favourite as number one. A candidate had to win a majority of first and second preference choices to become the mayor. In 2021, the Conservatives won 40.5% of the votes in the first round of voting with Labour on 32.8% and the Liberal Democrats on 26.7%. The second preference votes of the third-place Liberal Democrat candidate were then re-distributed, meaning Labour won 51.3% of the votes compared to 48.7% for the Conservative candidate. Why are there no local elections in Norfolk, Suffolk or Essex? Local elections in all three counties have been suspended until 2026 due to plans to introduce a joint mayor for Norfolk and Suffolk and a single mayor for Essex - part of the government's plans for greater devolution. County, district, borough and city councils would be merged into single unitary authorities overseen by a directly elected mayor. In Norfolk, Suffolk and most of Essex, each area is currently served by two councils - services such as education, social services and highways are provided by the county council while district, city or borough councils look after areas including housing, planning and rubbish collections. A unitary council provides all local services, as is already the case in Southend in Essex and Peterborough in Cambridgeshire. However, it has not been decided how the local government map will be re-drawn - counties could be divided into smaller units and district councils merged, or whole counties could remain and the districts scrapped. The deadline for proposals is September.
