West Midlands Mayoralty: All roads lead to Street
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In an evening where
the Conservatives fared badly across several combined authority areas in England
at Labour’s expense, losing the West of England mayoralty to Dan Norris and
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoralty to Dr Nik Johnson, the West Midlands
were retained by the incumbent mayor, Andy Street, proving himself as the West
Midlands champion.
After securing the inaugural mayoral post in 2017 by a slim-majority of 3,766
votes, Street faced a significant task in fending off the determined challenge
from Labour’s Liam Byrne MP, to reclaim its former political hegemony in the
region.
However, Street has defied the odds to not only retain the West Midlands
Combined Authority (WMCA) for the Conservatives but did so on an impressive
majority of 55,309 votes ahead of his Labour rival, increasing his vote of 54
per cent of the vote for first and second preference votes, against his
inaugural vote in 2017 of 50.4 per cent.
Along with offering a credible roadmap for the region’s recovery from the
COVID-19 pandemic, Street’s appeal on housing, brownfield-first development and
protections for green space were central to his appeal across those areas where
he not just won big but came streets ahead of Byrne, namely: Dudley, Sandwell,
Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
The full combines first and second preference votes by local authority area are
included below.
Birmingham
Liam Byrne (Labour) 112,092
Andy Street (Conservative) 89,400
Coventry
Liam Byrne (Labour) 35,943
Andy Street (Conservative) 33,491
Dudley*
Andy Street (Conservative) 52,608
Liam Byrne (Labour) 24,150
Sandwell*
Liam Byrne (Labour) 52,608
Andy Street (Conservative) 29,277
Solihull*
Andy Street (Conservative) 44,697
Liam Byrne (Labour) 12,327
Walsall*
Andy Street (Conservative) 36,268
Liam Byrne (Labour) 21,443
Wolverhampton*
Andy Street (Conservative) 28,928
Liam Byrne (Labour) 26,708