Labour's Richard Parker defeats Andy Street to be elected West Midlands mayor

Labour's Richard Parker has been elected as mayor of the West Midlands, defeating Conservative Andy Street.

It came down to a tight margin, after several vote checks and a full recount for Coventry, during the contest at Birmingham's ICC on Saturday.

Mr Parker won by just 1,508 votes. He secured 225,590 votes, with Mr Street on 224,082.

Akhmed Yakoob (Independent) was third on 69,621 votes.

Elaine Williams (Reform) secured 34,471 votes, Siobhan Harper-Nunes (Green) was on 31,036 and Sunny Virk (Lib Dem) was last on 12,176 - with the turnout 29.57%.

Conservative Andy Street had been in the mayoral role since it was created in 2017, and had hoped to secure a third term.

Speaking after his election was announced, Mr Parker thanked Conservative candidate Andy Street. He said: "Thank you first and foremost, thank you."

He thanked polling staff and added: "Thank you also to Andy (Street), you've led this region through a number of great challenges and you deserve a great credit for that.

"You deserve credit for building up the combined authority into the powerhouse that it is today, through the economic shocks, and leading this region when it came out of Covid.

"You've been out there representing our region, I absolutely believe that whilst our politics are different, Andy, we both have our best interests of the West Midlands at heart."

It will be the first time Labour has led the West Midlands Combined Authority, and will come as a bitter blow to the Conservatives ahead of a General Election.

Mr Street's loss was part of a double blow for the Prime Minister after Labour's Sadiq Khan secured a historic third term as Mayor of London.

The party also counted mayoral victories in Liverpool, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and in Greater Manchester where Andy Burnham returned to power.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Labour's victory in the West Midlands mayoral election was a "phenomenal result" which was "beyond our expectations".

As West Midlands mayor, Mr Parker will represent an area covering Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Coventry, and other boroughs across the region.

What does the mayor do?

The mayor is chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and represents about 2.8m people across the region.

His focus is on:

• economic growth in the region
• improving transport network
• improving housing in the region
• tackling unemployment and developing jobseekers’ skills
• tackling homelessness
• improving air quality
• improving relationships between different parts of the community in the region

Richard Parker's tenure as West Midlands mayor will run for a four-year term.

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