Peterborough and Cambridgeshire mayor election saw highest turnout across the country

Seven mayors were elected across England on May 6, with 36.4 per cent of the electorate casting their vote locally, compared to 32.9 per cent at the inaugural election in 2017.

The lowest turnout was in Liverpool City Region where Labour’s Steve Rotherham triumphed on a turnout of 29.5 per cent.

In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Dr Nik Johnson (Labour) defeated Conservative incumbent James Palmer thanks to second preference votes.

Dr Johnson received 32.8 per cent of first preference votes (a rise of 14.2 per cent compared to Labour’s previous performance in 2017), while Mr Palmer received 40.5 per cent (a rise of 2.5 per cent).

Liberal Democrat Aidan Van de Weyer received 26.7 per cent of the vote, (up 3.2 per cent from 2017), but finished third.

People who voted for Mr Van de Weyer then saw their second preference votes allocated to either of the other two candidates (if they expressed a preference for one of them).

This led to Dr Johnson receiving a further 37,888 votes (72.7 per cent), compared to 14,253 for Mr Palmer (27.3) per cent, enabling the Labour candidate to claim victory by 5,799 votes.

Dr Johnson now leads the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, a devolved body with large powers over transport, housing, growth projects and adult education.

Labour candidates won five out of the seven combined authority elections in May, with the Conservative candidates winning the other two.

Labour mayors now govern combined authorities covering more than 8.5 million people while Conservative mayors govern areas covering more than 3.6 million people.

The Green Party came third in all five elections they contested, ahead of the Liberal Democrats.

In three elections, the winning candidate won more than 50 per cent of the first preference votes. The other elections went to the second preference votes round.