Labour’s Claire Ward elected East Midlands Mayor and Gary Godden elected Notts Police and Crime Commissioner

By
Notts TV News Reporter
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Labour's Claire Ward has been elected East Midlands Mayor.

Labour’s Claire Ward has been elected as the first Mayor of the East Midlands.

It’s the first time the region has ever elected a mayor, with Ms Ward to now be the figurehead for the East Midlands and to be in charge of spending new cash and using new powers.

She secured just above 40 per cent of the vote share with 181,040 votes. Ben Bradley – the current Mansfield MP and Nottinghamshire County Council leader – came in second place with 129,332 votes.

The result mirrored the picture nationally, where Labour picked up big gains including also obtaining the first mayoralty of the North East.

Overall, the Conservatives’ Mr Bradley secured 29 per cent of the vote across the East Midlands – reflecting national opinion polls ahead of this year’s General Election which put Sir Keir Starmer’s party on course for a majority.

See below for all the reaction to today’s elections – including the outcome of the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner election, which was also won by Labour.

  • The results of a vote for the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner, also held on Thursday, show victory for Labour’s Gary Godden.
  • Voting was held across Nottinghamshire on Thursday, but the results were declared throughout Friday afternoon.
  • Ms Ward won 181,040 votes. Conservative Ben Bradley was second with 129,332. The Green Party’s Frank Adlington-Stringer came third with 50,666.

Follow our live blog below for updates throughout Friday. Results and analysis also in Notts Today on Notts TV 5.30-6.30pm.

22.05 – End of live blog

That’s everything from the team here at Notts TV, bringing to a close our coverage of both the East Midlands Mayoral and Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner elections.

You can see full round-ups of both elections below – plus a breakdown of what the results could mean locally for the expected General Election in the autumn.

Links to these stories are in the next few posts of the blog.

You can also catch a full round-up on the daily Notts Today news show – plus lots of other local news, views and natter – and this can be viewed on-demand here: Notts Today, Friday 3rd May

However, in the meantime – from everyone here at Notts TV, thanks for following today’s live blog. Have a great Bank Holiday weekend!

22.00 – Newly-elected Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner says ensuring trust in the force will be a big part of his job. 

Gary Godden, new Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner

The newly-elected Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner says ensuring trust in the force will be a big part of his job.

Labour’s Gary Godden defeated Conservative Caroline Henry convincingly by more than 40,000 votes.

The former police officer of 15 years will now be tasked with holding the force to account.

Read Local Democracy Reporter Jamie Waller’s full Police and Crime Commissioner election round-up here. 

21.45 – Round-up: Tough day for Conservatives in Notts with double Labour win ahead of General Election

Ben Bradley gave a speech after coming second.

It was a tough pill to swallow for the Conservative Party across Nottinghamshire as mayoral and police commissioner elections appeared to show red bricks beginning to return to the red wall.

Labour’s Claire Ward secured an overwhelming victory in the first-ever East Midlands mayoral election – landing more than 180,000 votes compared to the Conservatives’ Ben Bradley at just below 130,000.

The party’s Gary Godden also returned the Police and Crime Commissioner position back to Labour after three years being held by the Conservatives’ Caroline Henry.

Ms Ward’s mayoral victory saw a 40 per cent vote share for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in the inaugural mayoral poll.

Read Notts TV News Editor Andrew Topping’s full-day round-up via this link, including a break-down of some localised results.

20.05 – Ben Bradley thanks voters after finishing second in mayoral election. 

19.50 – FULL STORY: East Midlands Mayor Claire Ward vows to address region’s ‘massive challenges’ after winning election.

Labour Mayor of the East Midlands Claire Ward.

The new mayor of the East Midlands has vowed to address the region’s “massive challenges” after being elected in an historic poll.

Labour’s Claire Ward was elected on Friday, May 3, with a 40 per cent share of the total number of votes cast across the region.

The Labour Party’s victory in the East Midlands was replicated across the country, with the Conservative Party’s council seat losses numbered in the hundreds.

Cllr Ben Bradley, the current leader of Nottinghamshire County Council and Mansfield’s Conservative MP, was left “disappointed” with the result and said his campaign had been up against a difficult tide nationally.

However Ms Ward said the result had shown people in the region believed the “country was broken”, the region had “massive challenges”, and they wanted change.

READ: Read the full story and reaction to today’s election here.

19.00 – BREAKING NEWS: Labour’s Gary Godden has been elected as Nottinghamshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner.

From left to right - Gary Godden of Labour, Caroline Henry of the Conservatives, and David Watts of the Liberal Democrats
From left to right – Gary Godden of Labour, Caroline Henry of the Conservatives, and David Watts of the Liberal Democrats

Gary Godden has been elected Police and Crime Commissioner by a convincing 40,000 vote margin.
Final votes-
Labour – 119,355
Conservative – 77,148
Liberal Democrats – 32,410

READ MORE HERE

It follows convincing wins for Mr Godden in other districts and boroughs including Gedling, Mansfield, Ashfield and Newark and Sherwood.

Labour also secured victory in Nottingham city.

More on this – including comments from the new commissioner plus reaction from losing former PCC Caroline Henry – shortly.

17.50 In the Police and Crime Commissioner election count, which is still ongoing at Rushcliffe Arena, two more sets of results through, all good for Labour’s Gary Godden. It’s going to be hard for Conservative Caroline Henry to catch him

Broxtowe:
Labour – 14,984
Conservative – 8,229
Liberal Democrat – 5,834

Bassetlaw:
Lab – 11,180
Con – 8,268
Lib Dem – 2,324

17.36 New East Midlands Mayor Claire Ward is talking to reporters following the win – written reaction piece from Local Democracy Reporter Joe Locker to follow shortly.

Labour Mayor of the East Midlands Claire Ward talks to the media following her win the May 2 vote.

17.33 Report from the mayoral result by Sam Jones. Claire Ward says “together we will restore pride and purpose” for the region. Conservative Ben Bradley, who came second says he’s “hugely disappointed”.

17.15 In the ongoing Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner count.

We’ve just had results through from three districts – Labour’s Gary Godden ahead in all of them.
Mansfield:
Labour – 10,114
Conservative – 7,757
Lib Dem – 2135

Newark and Sherwood
Labour – 11,282
Conservative – 11,246
Lib Dem – 3703

Ashfield:
Lab – 10,237
Conservative – 7757
Lib Dem – 3329

16.46 Here is the breakdown of the votes in the East Midlands Mayoral election.

Frank Adlington-Stringer (Green Party): 50,666
Ben Bradley (Conservatives): 129,332
Alan Graves (Reform UK): 49,201
Matt Relf (Independent): 23,359
Helen Tamblyn-Saville (Liberal Democrats): 15,970
Claire Ward (Labour): 181,040

16.34 NottsTV local democracy reporter Jamie Waller has sent in the results for the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner election for the Rushcliffe Borough Council area.

Gary Godden (Lab) – 15,931
Caroline Henry (Con) – 13,580
David Watts (Lib Dem) – 4,758

16.31 BREAKING:

16.20 And still we wait…

16.04 …we are (hopefully) minutes away from the mayoral result. MP for Nottingham South Lilian Greenwood is at the count.

15.52 After the mayoral result is announced attention will turn to Rushcliffe Arena where the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) votes are being counted.

The Labour Party candidate is former police officer Gary Godden who says he intends to be a “strong voice for all the community”.

He is hoping to topple current PCC Conservative Caroline Henry. She campaigned on her “strong track record of delivering more police and safer streets for Nottinghamshire”.

The Lib Dem candidate is David Watts, a solicitor advocate and a criminologist. He wants “make sure that people no longer fear crime” by becoming the county’s PCC.

15.41 East Midlands Mayoral candidates prepare for the official declaration at Nottingham Tennis Centre. Hugs for Labour candidate Claire Ward.

15.35 Derby City Council have shared the results of the mayoral vote in their area:

15.31 And we are expecting the full result for the first East Midlands Mayor in the next 15 minutes…

15.19 East Midlands Mayor candidates are gathering ready to hear the result of the vote count in the Nottingham City Council area. As shown in this photo from NottsTV local democracy reporter Joe Locker:

East Midlands mayoral candidates gather to hear results from Nottingham City Council.
East Midlands mayoral candidates gather to hear results from Nottingham City Council.

 

15.09 NottsTV local democracy reporter Jamie Waller has figures on turnout for the Police and Crime Commissioner vote.

Turnout is 28.1% – slightly higher than that 27.6% of the mayoral election.

The Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner count at Rushcliffe Arena
The Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner count at Rushcliffe Arena.

15.04 Local democracy reporter Eddie Bisknell has been investigating claims from voters East Midland mayoral leaflets arrived late.

A spokesperson for the combined authority’s returning officer, Mel Barrett, earlier this week had confirmed 1.6 million people had received an information booklet about the new authority and the candidates standing for election.

They added: “We were made aware late last week that the dispatch timelines for some of the booklets hadn’t been met by our distributor. We immediately took steps to ensure that the remaining booklets are delivered ahead of the election on Thursday.

“In addition, every single voter was sent a polling card before the booklet, which informed voters that they could find information about candidates standing in the election on the East Midlands Devolution website.”

14.59 The count has started at Rushcliffe Arena for the Notts Police and Crime Commissioner vote – result expected around 4pm.

14.50 Also in Rushcliffe some really significant results coming in on the Mayoral Election. This is the constituency which currently has a Conservative-led borough council- and a Conservative MP, Ruth Edwards, who has a majority of 7,000.

But in this vote, the borough’s gone for Labour – just.

Rushcliffe East Midlands Mayoral Result;

Frank Adlington-Stringer (Green) – 3877
Ben Bradley (Con) – 12,887
Alan Graves (Ref) – 1,974
Matt Relf (Ind) – 1,828
Helen Tamblyn-Saville (Lib Dem) – 1,151
Claire Ward (Lab) – 13,158

Remember this is only one result – but it gives weight to the Labour claims of overall victory given it’s traditionally one of the bluest parts of Notts.

We’re still waiting for the overall result.

14.25 The scene at Rushcliffe Arena, where votes are due to be counted for the Nottinghamshire Police and Commissioner vote. Gary Godden (Lab), Caroline Henry (Con) and David Watts (Lib Dem) are the candidates.

14.04 Excuse our high-tech graphic – but yes, council officers often hand members of the media at the count pieces of paper when results are known. So taking a photo is the fastest way of reproducing some of the results.

Some interesting figures coming out regarding turnout in the mayoral election.

The council area with the highest turnout was Rushcliffe at 37.7%, followed by Broxtowe at 35%.

Bolsover had the lowest turnout with 22.3%.

13.58 Full turnout across the entire area has been calculated for the East Midlands Mayoral Election. It’s 27.6% – similar to what you might see for a typical local council election – and less than half you would see in a General Election.

13.46 A Labour source tells Local Democracy Reporter Joe Locker they are ‘confident’ Claire Ward has won. She’s now arrived at the count, where a result is expected within the hour. 

13.32 A final result is getting closer in the East Midlands Mayoral Election. The vote count is progressing on schedule so we’re expecting a declaration anytime before 2.30pm.

But how will a new mayor impact the East Midlands region?
The East Midlands Mayor will cover the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire region, which has a combined population of 1.6 million people. The joint council area is called the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA). The authority has been officially established and will work alongside the existing city and county councils.

The devolution deal, worth £1.14bn, will carry powers from Westminster to the elected mayor. Working with local councils, the new mayor will act as a figure head in the combined authority. They will serve four year terms.

13.28 CORRECTION: The returning officer for the East Midlands Mayoral Election has corrected the Nottingham-only turnout figure they published a few moments ago. It was 24.93% not 28.85%.

13.04 Nottingham’s Labour MPs have been congratulating the winner of the Blackpool South by-election.

MP for Nottingham East Nadia Whittome congratulated Chris Webb, the new MP for Blackpool South, He won 58.9% of the vote share.

Shadow cabinet member Lillian Greenwood, MP For Nottingham South, called it “a brilliant result.”

 12.55 “If the polling we’ve seen pre-election is correct, we’ll get the result in the country for a Green vote” says Green Party East Midlands Mayoral Candidate Frank Adlington-Stringer. He’s already conceded defeat in the vote – saying “we’re going to have a Labour mayor”.

His target was to beat Reform UK candidate Alan Graves, he adds.

12.53 Nottingham’s turnout for the mayoral election was 28.85%. This is for the city only – we’re still awaiting an entire region turnout.

12.43 The turnout for the Police and Crime Commissioner election across the whole of Nottinghamshire has been confirmed as 28.1%. The figure has been calculated by Rushcliffe Borough Council – who are counting the PCC votes.

12.22 Some turnout results now – indicating how many people registered to vote actually did so – therefore giving an overview of how engaged the public were with the election.

Rushcliffe Borough Council says turnout in the borough – so just in that one area of Notts – for the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner election was 37.6% and 37.7% for the East Midlands Mayor election. This can be considered respectable in terms of a local election in the area – in 2021 in Rushcliffe the turnout for the PCC vote was 34%.

Note a typical turnout for a general election is around 65-70%. In 2019 the national general election turnout was 67.3%.

12.20 Green Party East Midlands Mayoral Candidate Frank Adlington-Stringer has arrived at the Nottingham Tennis Centre count, as has independent candidate Matt Relf.

11.57 Conservative East Midlands Mayoral Candidate Ben Bradley has just finished speaking to Local Democracy Reporter Joe Locker about his thoughts ahead of the result.

“We know it’s a difficult national situation.” he says of the overall results for Conservatives so far today.

“Time will tell” he says on his chances of winning.

11.49 All of the East Midlands Mayoral Election candidates have been setting out their stalls for weeks. Several public debates have been held, including one broadcast on April 19 on Notts TV, organised alongside Nottinghamshire Live and Nottingham Trent University. See what happened; 


11.32 Turnout – as in how many people who can vote, actually did go out and cast a ballot yesterday – is going to be a big talking point today. The Mayoral position is an entirely new one – and the vote hasn’t been held in conjunction with a General Election, as some other local elections sometimes are. This could mean fewer people took part yesterday than is usual for a local or general election. The turnout figure is expected shortly, once votes are verified.

Earlier this week we spoke to the people of Nottingham in Old Market Square to find out what they thought.

Obviously, it was a very small sample, so isn’t an accurate reflection of the general population. But of those we did speak to, we found that three quarters of people, or 15/20, knew there was an election taking place, but just one in five knew anything about the candidates or the new mayor’s powers.

11.01 Elsewhere in the region, Labour retained control of the City of Lincoln council where a third of the seats were up for grabs last night. The Labour Party won 8 seats, the Lib Dems won 2, and the Conservatives won 1. The Conservatives also lost overall control of the North East Lincolnshire Council five years after taking control. They remain the largest party, however.

10.55 Some of the East Midlands Mayoral candidates are arriving at the Nottingham Tennis Centre to see how the count is going, including Conservative Ben Bradley. Already the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council and MP for Mansfield, he’s indicated he would step down from both roles if he wins the vote. A long-time supporter of the idea of East Midlands devolution, he’s argued the post will help bring more funding to the area and says it would ensure the East Midlands moves forward economically.

10.49 Timings of other results: The count continues for a number of regional mayoral elections today, here are the results to look out for:

North East: 12pm
Tees Valley: 12:30pm
East Midlands: 2:30pm
York and North Yorkshire: 3pm

10.41 The national picture is starting to build after a number of local authorities counted votes overnight, rather than waiting until Friday, as Nottinghamshire has done.

Renowned polling expert Sir John Curtice has given a damning assessment of the local election results for the Prime Minister and the Conservative Party.

Speaking to BBC News this morning he said: “So far they are basically losing half of the seats they are trying to defend.

“If that continues they may end up losing 500 or so seats, which is the thing they were meant to avoid.”

It is setting up to be the worst local election performance for the Conservatives in many years.

10.38 Here’s the scene at Nottingham Tennis centre, where the verification of votes and counting is under way for the Mayoral vote. Remember result expected here 1.30-2.30pm.

10.21 This is the first-ever election to appoint a regional Mayor for the East Midlands. It comes after a devolution deal was signed between local councils and the Government to help redress longstanding funding imbalances in the region, which saw the East Midlands lagging behind neighbouring regions on per-head Government funding.

It will hand extra funding and political powers from Whitehall to local leaders so they can decide how to improve policy areas like housing, transport, public health and the environment.

10.20 Our reporting team is in place at Nottingham Tennis Centre, University Boulevard, where an army of local council staff are verifying and counting votes for the mayoral election. Here’s the scene as verification gets going.

Counting for the East Midlands Mayoral vote is under way at Nottingham Tennis Centre.

10.16 And in the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Election, also held yesterday, there were three candidates;

Caroline Henry (Conservative)

Gary Godden (Labour and Co-operative)

David Watts (Liberal Democrat)

10.15 A reminder of who the candidates are in both votes. In the East Midlands Mayoral election, the names on the ballot paper were;

Frank Adlington-Stringer (Green Party)

Ben Bradley (Conservative Party)

Alan Graves (Reform UK)

Matt Relf (Independent)

Helen Tamblyn-Saville (Liberal Democrats)

Claire Ward (Labour Party)

More here on the background of how they were hoping to win over voters.

10.10 We’ve woken up to national headlines around the country of local election results being declared. But not all the ballots around England were counted overnight. Many are being counted today instead, including here in Notts. This means our results for the East Midlands Mayor election and the Notts Police and Crime Commissioner vote will come later today (Friday May 3) instead.

Ballot papers for the mayoral election are being counted by local council staff at Nottingham Tennis Centre. Votes for the commissioner election are being counted at Rushcliffe Arena.

Here’s the expected timetable of results;

• Verification of ballots atarts – 9am
• EMCCA Mayoral count starts – 12 noon
• EMCCA Mayoral results – 1.30pm – 2.30pm
• Notts PCC count starts – 2.30pm
• Notts PCC results announced – 4.00pm – 5.00pm

09.50 Good morning. Welcome to our coverage for the Nottinghamshire results of the East Midlands Mayoral Election and the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner vote.

Reporting today comes from Local Democracy Reporters Joe Locker and Jamie Waller, Production Journalist Sam Jones, along with Lauren Monaghan, PJ Lynch and Jodine Samuels. Blog editors are Chris Breese, Andrew Topping and Jonny Greatrex.

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