West Midlands mayoral election: Labour in shock victory over Tory Andy Street
Andy Street has lost the West Midlands mayoralty in a shock defeat for the Conservatives after a contest that went down to the wire.
Tory Andy Street loses West Midlands mayoral election
Tory Andrew Street has lost the West Midlands mayoral race in a huge blow to Rishi Sunak.
The Conservative incumbent had hoped to hold on but Labour candidate Richard Parker secured a narrow majority of just 1,508 votes in a tense count.
The loss was part of a double hit to the Prime Minister today after Labour's Sadiq Khan trounced Tory Susan Hall in the London mayoral contest.
With the defeat of the West Midlands, Mr Sunak is left with the sole consolation of a mayoral victory in the Tees Valley with Ben Houchen.
Mr Street's loss could be fresh fodder to Conservative rebels set on ousting the embattled PM before the general election.
Newly elected Mayor of the West Midlands Mr Parker thanked Mr Street after his surprise win.
He said: "Thank you also to Andy, you've led this region through a number of great challenges and you deserve a great credit for that.
"You deserve credit for building up the combined authority into the powerhouse that it is today, through the economic shocks, and leading this region when it came out of Covid.
"You've been out there representing our region, I absolutely believe that whilst our politics are different, Andy, we both have our best interests of the West Midlands at heart."
Ex-John Lewis boss Mr Street said it had been his "honour to serve and to lead this place for the last seven years".
He said: "I hope I've done it with dignity and integrity.
"And I hope I've bequeathed to Richard a combined authority and indeed a role to which young aspiring leaders will want to aspire one day. In a sense, I can have done no more than that.
"It has been a great privilege. But tonight, I just wanted to say thank you, and good night."
Jubilant Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Labour's victory was a "phenomenal result" which was "beyond our expectations".
It has been a difficult set of local elections for the PM after voters took to the polls on Thursday.
With 106 out of 107 of the local councils declared on Saturday, the Conservatives had suffered a net loss of 396 councillors and the loss of 10 councils.
Labour won control of eight councils with a net gain of 231 seats, while the Liberal Democrats gained 97 seats and the Greens 64.
But Sir Keir Starmer's party lost some council seats to independents and George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain, apparently over its position on Gaza.
