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Rishi Sunak has been dealt another blow after losing the West Midlands mayoral election to Labor’s Richard Parker by a narrow margin in the Conservative Party’s Andy Street election.
The incumbent Conservative Party mayor, who has been mayor since 2017, was trying to project an independent stance amid tough polls for his party.
However, after a lengthy recount, Parker was nominated as the winner with 1,508 votes, less than 0.25% of the total, and was unable to win a third term.
The defeat marks the end of a series of setbacks for the Conservative Party in local elections and could spark fresh speculation about the Prime Minister’s future, although Tory rebels who had been plotting to oust him He has already admitted defeat.
The role of the West Midlands is one of two major mayoral races that the Conservatives narrowly won in 2017 and easily defended in 2021 at the height of Boris Johnson’s dominance of British politics. There was one.
Mr Street downplayed his ties to the party, trumpeting his support from Mr Johnson and touting his record of service to the community. Last year, he had a huge public argument with the Prime Minister over the decision to abolish Highway 2 north of Birmingham.
In a speech following his defeat, the outgoing mayor thanked voters for the “trust they have shown in me,” and concluded: I hope I did it with dignity and integrity. ”
Mr Parker, a former senior management consultant who has never held elected office, told Mr Street: From Covid. Andy, you have been representing our region. Andy, even though our politics are different, I absolutely believe that we both have the best interests of the West Midlands at heart. ”
In a statement after the results, Sir Keir Starmer said: “This extraordinary result exceeded our expectations. People across the country were fed up with the confusion and decline of the Conservative Party and voted with Labor for change.”
Another high-profile Conservative re-election contest, the Tees Valley mayoral race, saw Ben Houchen win re-election on a rare positive note for Sunak.
The Conservative Party has lost more than 470 MPs across England, losing almost half of the seats it held before the local elections, and the Liberal Democrats have defeated the Conservatives in third place in terms of parliamentary seats. Ta.
Labour, Liberal Democrats, Greens and independent candidates all made big gains, but Reform UK won just two parliamentary seats despite a relatively strong third place in the Blackpool South by-election. I couldn’t get it.
In other mayoral elections in London, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, where results were announced on Saturday, incumbent Labor MPs easily won re-election. Labor also picked several police and crime commissioners from the Conservative Party.
Mr Sunak’s allies claimed the result was “predictable” and vowed to close the gap with Labor ahead of the general election, while anti-government conservatives who had called for the prime minister’s ouster have said the outcome was “predictable” Despite the setbacks, they admitted that their efforts were not successful.
But Sir Simon Clarke, one of only two MPs to publicly call for a new leader, said in a WhatsApp message to colleagues following the local election results: stated. Fight the same campaign within a few months and you’ll likely get the same results. ”