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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Mark Brown, Jessica Murray and Rowena Mason

Ben Houchen victory bucks anti-Tory trend as Labour wins three mayoral contests

Keir Starmer talks into a microphone with Rachel Reeves to his left and David Skaith to his right, and supporters waving Labour signs in the background
Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer with the newly elected York and North Yorkshire mayor, David Skaith. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

The Conservatives held on to their high-profile Tees Valley mayoralty with a reduced majority for Ben Houchen in the mayoral elections, but Labour won three other contests, in the East Midlands, North East and Rishi Sunak’s own patch of North Yorkshire.

Houchen was re-elected with a 16.5 percentage point swing to Labour. He won 81,930 votes (53.6%) against 63,141 (41.3%) for Labour and 7,679 (5%) for the Liberal Democrats. At the last election he won 73% of the votes.

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