Local elections took place across the country on Thursday May 6th, with polling stations opening at 7am and closing at 10pm. We have gathered together the winners that have been announced from all our cities, as well as what their impact on students will be.
Bristol
Mayor of Bristol – Labour
Marvin Rees from the Labour party has been re-elected as the mayor of Bristol. Marvin is set on delivering more jobs and affordable homes for the people of Bristol, and he has also shown support for the student community. Earlier this year, he wrote a letter to students studying in Bristol, noting that they are an integral part of the city and acknowledging their compliance and support with the pandemic.
Mayor of West England – Labour
Dan Norris received 125,482 votes in the election and celebrated his win in the best way possible, with his adorable dog Angel! In the past, Dan has served as an MP for Wansdyke, a role he maintained from 1997 to 2010.
Brighton
Hollingdean and Stanmer – Green Party
The new Councillor for Hollingdean and Stanmer is Zoe John, from the Green Party. Zoe received more than 1500 votes, than Labour candidate Leila Erin-Jenkins who had 1262, and Conservative candidate Emma Dawson-Bowling with 745 votes.
Patcham – Conservative
The Patcham ward seat has been won by Anne Meadows, who received a staggering 2011 votes in the election. Anne has lived in Patcham for the last 20 years and also works for the NHS at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
Birmingham – Conservative
Dudley Council
The Dudley Council election results are in, and the Conservatives gained 12 seats on the council. This means that the Conservatives have a total of 46 seats on the council, 24 for Labour and 2 for independents.
Patrick Harley first became Leader of the Dudley Council in 2018 and has done a lot for his constituents since then. He has also used social media in the past to hold live Q&A sessions.
Redditch Borough Council
There were 9 seats available on the Redditch Borough Council, and each won was won by members of the Conservative party. The council now has a total of 25 Conservative Councillors and 12 Labour.
The Leader of the Redditch Borough Council is Matt Dormer, and he is pushing Redditch to be the best that it can be. He is creating more opportunities for the town, and Matt is also a firefighter and a local business owner.
Leading up to the election, if you are from the area you probably saw Matt on social media, as he urged people to take the time to vote whilst the polling stations were still open.
Cardiff
Cardiff Central Member of the Senedd – Labour
Jenny Rathbone has been a Member of the Senedd since 2011 and has been re-elected in the May elections. Before she became a member, she was a Councillor in Islington. Jenny is also a keen supporter of the student community and has made herself available to students experiencing difficulties with housing and their tenancies during the pandemic.
Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales – Labour
Alun Michael has served as the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales since 2012 and has just been re-elected for the third time in the position. Alun was also the first Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales.
Coventry – Labour
Of the 19 seats up for grabs in the Coventry City Council, the Labour party has secured 13 and the Conservative party has 6. Making the total number of Labour seats 39 and the Conservative total 15. Whilst this is one more than previous years for the Conservative party, the council is predominately Labour.
Edinburgh
Edinburgh Central Member of Scottish Parliament – Scottish National Party
Angus Robertson of the Scottish National Party has won the seat for Edinburgh Central after defeating the Conservative candidate Scott Douglas by nearly 5000 votes. Earlier this year in January, Angus wrote an article for the Edinburgh Evening News about the future of students in the city. As Edinburgh has several universities, he feels it is important that they keep the Erasmus exchange scheme despite the UK leaving the EU, as it is a programme that benefits thousands of students each year.
Glasgow – Scottish National Party
Glasgow Anniesland
Bill won over 17,000 votes in the recent election and will be returning to Scottish Parliament thanks to his re-election. He was initially elected in 2016 with a little over 15,000 votes.
Glasgow Cathcart
Credit: Glasgow TimesJames Dornan won the MSP seat for Glasgow Cathcart in the elections and has plenty of political experience. This is his third term as MSP for Cathcart after he was initially elected in 2011. In 2016 he was re-elected, and he was appointed Convener of the Education and Skills Committee. In his spare time, it has also been said that James enjoys football, reading, and going to the theatre.
Glasgow Kelvin
Kaukab Stewart won the election for the Scottish Nationalist Party in Glasgow Kelvin and is the first woman of colour to serve as a Member of the Scottish Parliament. She won the election with 14,535 votes, which was more than 5000 ahead of the runner up.
Glasgow Maryhill
Bob Doris won the Glasgow Maryhill election for the Scottish National Party with more than 16,000 votes. Bob was initially elected in 2016, so this will be his second term. Prior to being a member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, he was the MSP for the Glasgow region from 2007 to 2016.
Leeds
Mayor of West Yorkshire – Labour
Tracy Brabin has been elected as the first Mayor of West Yorkshire with more than 310,000 votes. If Tracy looks familiar to you, that’s probably because, before her political career, she was an actor on Coronation Street!
Leicester
Police and Crime Commissioner – Conservative
Rupert Matthews has been elected as the Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland. He has come up with a 5 point plan for the county and aims to make policing more visible to deter crime, encourage the police to work with schools and neighbourhood watches, and ensure that the police have all the training and equipment they need. He also wants police in the city to have a no-nonsense approach to tackle knife crime, ASB, and drugs and for specialist teams to police rural areas.
Liverpool
Liverpool City Council – Labour
The Liverpool City council has a Labour majority with a total of 70 Labour councillors now on the council. The election saw 31 seats available, 23 of which went to the Labour party, 6 to the Liberal Democrats, 1 to the Green party and 1 to the Liberal party.
Mayor of Liverpool – Labour
Joanne Anderson has been elected as Mayor of Liverpool with a total of 46,493 votes. Joanne not just won by a significant proportion of the votes, but Liverpool’s new Labour mayor has made history as the first black woman to lead a city in Britain.
London
London Assembly – Labour
Unmesh Desai has been a member of the London assembly since 2016, but from 1998 until 2018 he was also Councillor for the Newham borough.
London Mayor – Labour
Sadiq Khan has been re-elected as the Mayor of London after he won 55.2% of the vote with more than 1 million votes. Sadiq became the first Muslim mayor of an EU capital city in 2016 when he was first elected. Sadiq is very keen to help the next generation and has made many decisions to help students and the education system.
Manchester
Mayor of Greater Manchester – Labour
Andy Burnham was re-elected as the Mayor of Greater Manchester with more than 473,000 votes. Andy is a friend of the student community, and last year he said that the government should recompense university students if the lockdowns and online teaching had to continue.
Manchester City Council – Labour
The Labour Party have a clear majority hold on the Manchester City Council, with the May elections giving 33 seats to the Labour Party and 1 to the Green Party. This means that the Labour party now holds a total of 94 seats in the council, with the Green Party and Liberal Democrats each having 1.
Newcastle – Labour
Newcastle City Council remains predominantly Labour despite the party losing two seats on the council. However, the turnout for the election was just 39%, which despite being low is a slight increase to the previous 2019 elections in the city. Councillor Nick Forbes has been the Leader of the council since 2011, but Nick Kemp has stated that he will be challenging Forbes leadership at the next meeting.
In March 2021, Councillor Nick Forbes told students at a virtual summit that the future of the city is in their hands. The summit took place over 5 days, and allowed all participants, including more than 130 students, to discuss ideas for talking about global warming and other climate issues. From this, we can take that the councillor takes students views seriously, which is important at a time like this.
Nottingham
Police and Crime Commissioner for Nottinghamshire – Conservative
Caroline Henry has been elected as Police and Crime Commissioner for Nottinghamshire and will be replacing Paddy Tipping, who had held the role since 2012. Caroline was elected with over 138,000 votes and will be in the role for the next three years. She aims to cut crime and deliver an effective and efficient police force.
Sheffield
Sheffield City Council
Currently, there is no leader of the Sheffield City Council after the former Council Leader, Bob Johnson, lost his seat to the Green Party. At the moment, 41 councillors are Labour, 29 Liberal Democrats, 13 Green Party and just 1 Conservative.
Oxford – Labour
After the May elections, Oxford City Council remains under the control of the Labour party with 34 of the 48 seats being Labour, 9 for the Liberal Democrats, 3 for the Green Party, and 2 Independents.
Southampton – Conservative
The Conservative party have won the majority of seats on the Southampton Council, meaning they have taken the control away from the Labour party. The conservatives won 11 of the 16 seats up for grabs in the election and now have a total of 25 seats in the city council.
Swansea
Swansea East – Labour
Mike Hedges has become an MS for Swansea East. The Senedd is responsible for health, education and transport services in Wales, and only one member is elected by each of the 40 constituencies.
Swansea West – Labour
Julie James has been elected as the MS for Swansea West with more than 11,000 votes and 46% of the vote. In the past, Julie has spoken out on student problems, such as the flat size rule change she raised as housing minister.
