Labour's Claire Ward becomes East Midlands' first elected Mayor
She won with a majority of more than 50,000
Last updated 3rd May 2024
Labour's Claire Ward has won the East Midlands mayoral election, becoming the region's first elected mayor.
Thursday was the first time voters went to the polls to elect a mayor for the region, which includes Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Derby and Nottingham.
Ms Ward had a majority of more than 50,000 over her nearest rival, Conservative candidate Ben Bradley, who is also the sitting Conservative MP for Mansfield and leader of Nottinghamshire County Council.
She won a total of 181,040 votes, 40% of the total, to Mr Bradley's 129,332, nearly 29% of the total.
The new Labour mayor said: "Throughout this campaign I have heard your message loud and clear, you are ready for change.
"You have not only put your trust in me, you have also put your trust in a changed Labour Party that can now confidently and with conviction say to our proud villages, towns and cities - we are ready to lead and we are ready to deliver."
In her victory speech, she thanked the voters in the region.
"You came out and you grasped the opportunity to take the decision-making out of the hands of strangers in Whitehall, and bring them closer to home," she said.
Labour appeared confident in its victory, having declared the result hours ahead of the final count.
A party source said she had "comfortably" defeated Mr Bradley, in a contest which they framed as "the beating heart of the general election battleground".
A Labour former minister, Ms Ward served in the Blair and Brown governments as a whip and later a justice minister.
She represented the parliamentary constituency of Watford between 1997 and 2010, when she lost the seat to Conservative candidate Richard Harrington, now a Tory peer.