West Midlands Mayoralty: All roads lead to Street

By Pearce Branigan

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