New East Midlands mayor vows to turn region around amid ‘massive challenges’

Labour’s Claire Ward was elected with a 40 per cent share of the total number of votes cast across the region.

Coun Ben Bradley (Con), the current leader of Nottinghamshire Council and Mansfield MP, was left ‘disappointed’ with the result and said his campaign had been up against a difficult tide nationally.

However Ms Ward said the result had shown people in the region believed the ‘country was broken’, the region had ‘massive challenges’, and they wanted change.

She said: “People are not expecting miracles.

"They know our country is broken.

"They know our local Government is broken right across the region, we’ve got massive challenges.

“But they wanted somebody who could start to turn that around and that I think is the reason why people responded so well to our message of hope and ambition.

"I talked, for example, about wanting to launch a ‘visit East Midlands’ campaign’ to really put our region on the map and highlight some of the gems we’ve got, not just the tourist attractions but everything we have here, including all the brilliant businesses, small and large, that can make this place an even better place for people to come to live and to work in.”

Ms Ward also vowed to act as an accountable mayor, while also bringing more investment to the region on top of the promised £1.14bn which comes as part of the devolution deal.

She continued: “People have put their trust in me and the Labour Party and the accountability will be there, there will be opportunites for the mayor to continue to be questioned and take part in events with citizens right across our region.

“But it is also about being the champion for this region.

"I will be the person who stands up for us, who shouts out for us, who makes the case for more investment.

"I am not prepared to accept just this deal.

"It’s a good start but we can do even better and I want to make sure we are delivering more over the next few years.”

Compared to Ms Ward’s 181,040 votes, Mr Bradley received 129,332 votes.

He said: “Obviously I’m hugely disappointed in the result on a personal level, having spent two-and-a-half years really trying to work to get us these powers, to get us this support and this investment for our region.

“But I know one way or another as a result of that, as a result of this new clout we have, as a region we will be better off.”

Frank Adlington-Stringer (Green) finished third with 50,666 votes, ahead of Alan Graves (Reform UK) on 49,201, Matt Relf (Ind) on 23,359 and Helen Tamblyn-Saville (Lib Dem) on 15,970.

Mr Relf, who has been a councillor on Ashfield Council for almost five years, said: “Lots of people have said I’m clearly the strongest candidate, but without the party machine, I’ve not successfully got my message out there.”