Labour wins West of England mayoral election
The Conservatives said fourth place in the contest was "disappointing"
Helen Godwin has retained the West of England mayoralty for Labour.
She had 51,197 votes, ahead of Reform UK's Arron Banks (45,252) and Green candidate Mary Page (41,094), with Conservative Steve Smith fourth with 34,092 and Liberal Democrat Oli Henman fifth with 28,711.
The result cannot be directly compared with 2021 as a different voting system was used, which saw Labour win in a second round vote against the Conservative candidate.
The role covers Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire, and the previous mayor was Dan Norris, who became MP for North East Somerset and Hanham at the general election last year, and has been suspended by Labour after he was arrested on suspicion of sexual offences against a girl and rape.
A 'disappointing' night for the Tories
The Conservatives said fourth place in the West of England mayoral contest was "disappointing".
But the party said the fall in the Labour vote share mean there were "serious questions" for Sir Keir Starmer.
A Conservative Party spokesman said: "This is a disappointing result - Steve Smith fought a great campaign.
"However, Labour's result in this contest is also telling - with the party seeing a significant fall in its share of the vote despite winning a historic majority at the general election just 10 months ago.
"Labour are going backwards, leaving serious questions about Keir Starmer's leadership - and the future of this Labour Government."
Labour sources pointed out the Tory vote "plummeted" by 12% from the first-round vote in 2021.
A Reform 'tidal wave'
Arron Banks said there was a "tidal wave" of support for Reform UK.
Speaking in Bristol after his defeat to Labour's Helen Godwin for the West of England Combined Authority mayoralty, Mr Banks told supporters: "This was our least likely place to win and we came up 6,000 votes short.
"There is a tidal wave going on in the UK at the moment.
"We have seen Reform victory after Reform victory.
"It looks like Bristol liked Banksy after all. And we beat the Greens."
'More votes outside of Bristol than in it'
There were more votes cast in the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) areas outside of Bristol than in it, verification figures show.
Bath and North East Somerset had 42,886 verified ballot papers, while South Gloucestershire had 64,847 - a combined total of 107,733.
Bristol had 97,824 verified ballot papers, so 9,909 fewer than the two other areas combined.