By Jamie Waller, Local Democracy Reporter
Ben Bradley says he will be carrying on as leader of Nottinghamshire County Council after losing last week’s East Midlands Mayoral election.
Claire Ward claimed the race for Labour when Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire elected the first ever Combined County Authority leader on Thursday.
The former MP for Watford won by around 50,000 votes and took just over 40 per cent of the overall vote, with Conservative candidate Cllr Bradley in second place with 29 per cent.
Ms Ward won in several districts which have voted for Conservative MPs in recent elections – including Cllr Bradley’s own constituency of Mansfield.
He had previously promised he would step down from his jobs as leader of Nottinghamshire County Council and MP for Mansfield if he won.
Following the loss, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he has no plans to quit.
On Tuesday, Cllr Keith Girling, the council’s cabinet member for economic development said Cllr Bradley had the Conservative group’s full support.
The Independent Alliance have requested a motion of no confidence in Cllr Bradley, saying his position was “untenable” and calling for his resignation.
However, this would not pass unless members of the ruling Conservative group also joined with them. An extraordinary meeting to discuss to motion could be held on Thursday, May 16.
Cllr Bradley wrote on Twitter following the defeat: “Unfortunately, despite a really strong local campaign, we couldn’t stop the national tide.
“I’m really grateful to the hundreds of people who have been working really hard for months to campaign and to make our case. I’m really sorry that we couldn’t win. Those guys deserved more.
“Personally obviously I’m really disappointed. Over the last two and a half years I’ve worked to secure a huge amount of new powers and new funding for our region. To create an opportunity to deliver more and fix local challenges.
“It’s something I’m passionate about, and obviously I’m really disappointed that I won’t get to lead it going forward.”
Claire Ward, a former Labour MP for Watford, begins her four-year term as East Midlands mayor today (Tuesday).
She will have powers over transport and economic development that were previously held by the government, and will control a budget of £38m per year.
Her victory came as Conservatives faced sweeping defeats in mayoral and council races across the country, with Ben Houchen’s re-election as Tees Valley mayor one of the party’s few bright spots.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer visited Mansfield on Saturday to hail “a really important victory” in the East Midlands.
The new mayor promised she would be a “champion for our region”, and said: “I am not prepared to accept just this [devolution] deal. It is just the start.”
The Green Party’s Frank Adlington-Stringer narrowly pipped Reform UK’s Alan Graves into third place, 50,666 votes to 49,201.
Independent Matt Relf came fifth with 23,359 votes, followed by Liberal Democrat’s Helen Tamblyn-Saville with 15,970.
