England mayoral elections: Burnham re-elected in Greater Manchester

Labour’s Andy Burnham has been re-elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester in a landslide victory.

The former MP secured 67.3 per cent of the vote, up from 63.4 per cent in 2017. His closest challenger was the Conservatives’ Laura Evans on 19.6 per cent. Turnout was up by around 5 per cent from four years ago.

Burnham, who has been dubbed “the King of the North” for his tough stance on the government’s lockdown restrictions, wiped away tears in an emotional victory speech. He is now the bookies’ favourite to take over from an embattled Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader.

The rest of England’s mayoral map remains almost unchanged as election results pour in today – but Labour has taken both the West of England and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mayoralties.

Dan Norris, a former Labour MP, won a tight first-preference round for West of England mayor, gaining 84,434 votes to Conservative Samuel Williams’ 72,415. Run-off votes confirmed Norris as the next mayor, with most first-round votes for the Greens and Liberal Democrats heading in his direction.

The good news for Labour was repeated in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, where incumbent Conservative James Palmer (108,195 votes) was ousted by Labour’s Nik Johnson (113,994 votes) on second-round votes.

In the urban heartlands of the North, steady Labour majorities were also returned. Both the Liverpool City mayor and Liverpool City Region metro mayor remain in their hands, with both Labour candidates winning in the first round.

Joanne Anderson, the first black woman to hold a UK mayoral position, replaces former Liverpool City mayor Joe Anderson (unrelated), who resigned following a criminal probe into corruption late last year.

Following a government probe into local Labour party corruption, Anderson has promised to rebuild trust in her party. “The first thing I want to do is apologise to the city of Liverpool on behalf of the party and administration for the findings of the Caller Report. It uncovered things that have deeply hurt us all”, she said.

Steve Rotheram has returned as mayor for the wider region on 58.7 per cent of the vote, a point down on 2017, promising urban renewal focused on investment in green projects and public services.

And in North Tyneside, Norma Redfern – Labour mayor since 2003 – has sailed home on 53 per cent of first-preference votes.

The excitement of the West Midlands race – a run-off between Conservative incumbent Andy Street and former Brown-era Labour minister and local MP Liam Byrne – has also come to a climax. Street will serve a second term as Mayor after gaining 314,669 votes on second-round voting to Byrne’s 267,626.

Despite successes in Birmingham and Sandwell, local Labour campaigners had feared that not enough had been done to dent Street’s appeal in other areas of the Combined Authority, with Wolverhampton, Walsall and Solihull coming out strong for the incumbent.

And Street has boosted his majority on four years ago, when he won by less than 4,000 votes.

In London, Labour’s Sadiq Khan has won a second term despite an unexpectedly strong turnout for Conservative challenger Shaun Bailey.

By the close of play last night, it looked like there was still all to play for. Khan sat on 39 per cent of first-preference votes, Bailey on 37 per cent. That was a difference of just 24,267 votes. A Labour insider told Sky News that complacency among left-wing voters had led to a poorer-than-expected turnout for Khan in the first round. “There is no question we are seeing significant impact from turnout and voters believing they could put a smaller party first preference without influencing the election result”, they said.

Today results for the other half of London’s constituencies were announced, with Khan picking up preferences from the Greens, Liberal Democrats and the many other smaller parties to attain a final vote share of 55.2% over Bailey’s 44.8%.