2021 West Midlands mayoral election

The 2021 West Midlands mayoral election will be held on 6 May 2021 to elect the mayor of the West Midlands, on the same day as other local elections across England and Wales, including councillors in all seven of its boroughs and the Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands city region.[1] This is the second election for the post, which had its first election in 2017 due to the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016. The mayor will be elected using the supplementary vote system. The election was originally due to take place in May 2020, but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.[2]

2021 West Midlands mayoral election
6 May 2021
 
Candidate Andy Street Liam Byrne Jenny Wilkinson
Party Conservative Labour Co-op Liberal Democrats
Area covered by the mayor.
Incumbent Mayor

Andy Street
Conservative

Incumbent Conservative mayor Andy Street was re-selected to stand in the mayoralty. The Labour Party selected the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Hodge Hill, Liam Byrne who is running as a Labour and Co-operative Party candidate, whilst Liberal Democrats chose two time Parliamentary Candidate for Sutton Coldfield Jenny Wilkinson and the Green Party selected it's Group Leader on Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council Steve Caudwell.

Background and election delay

The West Midlands is the second most populous city-region of the United Kingdom after Greater London.[3] The position of Mayor of the West Midlands was created in 2017 following a devolution deal between the UK government and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). The Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016 required a directly elected metro mayor for combined authorities to receive additional powers from central government.[4] Under the terms of the devolution deal, the first mayoral term is set to last until 2020, followed by elections every four years.[5]

In the inaugural election in 2017, the Conservative candidate Andy Street defeated Labour's Siôn Simon in the final round with 50.4% of the vote.

Street lobbied the government to integrate the Police and Crime Commissioner role within the Metro Mayor position in time for the 2020 election. This would have put the role's powers on policing in line with both the mayors of London and Greater Manchester. However, this broke down as the Combined Authority struggled with Streets lack of transparency.[6][7]

Prior to the election, the think tank Centre for Cities looked at the results of local elections in West Midlands for 2018 and 2019 to make a prediction of the result and found little movement for Labour and the Conservatives, describing the election as remaining on a "knife-edge".[8] On 12 December 2019 a general election took place in which the Conservatives secured an 80-seat majority, making it the worst seat performance for the Labour Party since the 1935 general election.[9][10] In further analysis, the Centre for Cities assessed the two parties performance in the West Midlands city region, saw the Conservatives having an advantage going into this election.[11] Paul Waugh of the Huffington Post saw the election as a "tough mountain for [Liam] Byrne to climb".[12] In contrast, writer for the New Statesman, Stephen Bush argued this is a difficult election for the Conservatives saying that the change in Labour's national leadership and being several months after Brexit would change the dynamic of the election.[13]

From December 2019, an international epidemic of a new strand of coronavirus, called COVID-19, began in Mainland China and spread across the world from February 2020. On 1 March Health Secretary Matt Hancock issued a warning that "all options" were being considered for handle the quarantine in the UK if the virus spread further, including delaying the local elections, the first time since the 2001 elections which were delayed due to the Foot and Mouth outbreak.[14] On 12 March Association of Electoral Administrators asked the government to consider postponing the elections should the situation in the UK get worse coming close to May.[15] The same day, the Electoral Commission recommended that the elections be delayed till the autumn time.[16] A day later it was decided to postpone them until 2021.[2][17] The change in election date is to be ignored when calculating the four-yearly election cycle, so the following election will be held in 2024 and the Mayoral Term of Office in 2021 will accordingly be reduced to three years.[18]

Electoral system

The election uses a supplementary vote system, in which voters express a first and a second preference of candidates:

  • If a candidate receives over 50% of the first preference vote the candidate wins
  • If no candidate receives an overall majority, i.e., over 50% of first preference votes, the top two candidates proceed to a second round and all other candidates are eliminated
  • The first preference votes for the remaining two candidates stand in the final count
  • Voters' ballots whose first and second preference candidates are eliminated are discarded
  • Voters whose first preference candidates have been eliminated and whose second preference candidate is in the top two have their second preference votes added to the count

This means that the winning candidate has the support of a majority of voters who expressed a preference among the top two.

All registered electors (British, Commonwealth, Irish and European) living the metropolitan boroughs of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, and Wolverhampton aged 18 or over are entitled to vote in the mayoral election.

Candidates and party selections

[19]

West Midlands Combined Authority Mayoral Election 2021
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Co-op Liam Byrne
Independent Ashvir Sangha
Conservative Andy Street
Independent Tim Weller
Liberal Democrats Jenny Wilkinson
Green Steve Cauldwell

Candidates are required to be aged 18 or over and be a British, Commonwealth or European Union citizen. In addition they should fulfill one of the following: be registered to vote in the WMCA area; own or occupy land in the area for 12 months before their nomination; work in the WMCA for 12 months before their nomination; or have lived in the WMCA during the 12 months before their nomination.[20] Candidates are also required to present 100 signatures of people on the electoral register, with 10 from each constituent authority, and provide a £5,000 deposit to be returned if the candidate receives more than 5% in the first round.[20]

Conservative Party

Andy Street was re-selected as the Conservative candidate in September 2019.[21] He was previously the managing director of John Lewis.[13]

Labour Party

Liam Byrne, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, was selected as Labour's candidate in February 2020.[22] Five politicians showed interest in standing. Two of them: Neena Gill a Member of the European Parliament and Lynda Waltho, former MP for Stourbridge[23][24] withdrew their candidacy. The candidates for selection were Byrne,[25] Pete Lowe, a former leader of Dudley Council and vice chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority[26][27] and Salma Yaqoob, the former leader of the Respect Party.[28][29]

The Labour Party delayed their plan to announce their candidate in November 2019 due to the 2019 General Election.[30] The candidates were voted on by Labour Party members in the West Midlands, with the result announced in February 2020.[27] This was considered late as Labour selected their candidate for the previous election in August 2016 ahead of the May 2017 election.[31] Byrne was announced as the party's candidate on 6 February, with 6,948 valid votes being cast, a significant increase from the 3,817 recorded for the 2017 candidate selection. There was also five rejected ballots from the first round and a total of 698 votes non-transferable for the second round.[22]

Byrne was considered more centrist than the other two candidates, who were seen as being on the left of the party.[12][32][33] In Byrne's selection campaign he promoted ideas including the West Midlands being a "region of sanctuary" for refugees and municipal socialist policies for the city region.[31] He also promoted his positive relationship and endorsement from Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.[34] Journalists including Sienna Rodgers and Stephen Bush noted that his success in the selection could be seen as a boost for Keir Starmer's campaign for national Labour leadership.[22][34][35]

Selection results
2021 Labour West Midlands mayoral candidate selection [22]
Party Candidate 1st round 2nd round
 First round votes  Transfer votes 
Total Of round Transfers Total Of round
Labour Liam Byrne 3,105 43.2% 425 3,530 56.5%
​​
Labour Pete Lowe 2,034 28.9% 686 2,720 43.5%
​​
Labour Salma Yaqoob 1,809 26.2%
​​

Endorsements
Candidate Individuals Organisations
Liam Byrne
List of individuals endorsing Byrne
List of organisations endorsing Byrne
Pete Lowe
List of individuals endorsing Lowe
List of organisations endorsing Lowe
Salma Yaqoob
List of individuals endorsing Yaqoob
List of organisations endorsing Yaqoob

Liberal Democrats

Jenny Wilkinson, who stood for the party in the Sutton Coldfield constituency at the 2017 United Kingdom general election and 2019 United Kingdom general election, was selected in December 2020[58] - after their original selection of Beverley Nielsen, the party's candidate in the 2017 West Midlands mayoral election, announced as the party's candidate in January 2020,[59] stood down as Mayoral Candidate in July 2020 citing the struggle to balance an added year of campaigning; brought on by the election delay to due the COVID-19 pandemic[60] and then dramatically resigned party membership, along with three other Malvern Hills District Council Lib Dems, in protest after the group's new leader pulling out of the authority's ruling coalition administration.[61] She has since been appointed, as Liam Bryne's Climate Tsar for the Labour candidate's campaign.[62]

Green Party

Steve Caudwell, the party's group leader on Solihull Council and the party's only opposition leader in the West Midlands was announced as the party's candidate in January 2021.[63] Steve is standing for: "An end to the West Midlands Poverty Scandal, a genuinely Green Industrial Revolution, and a transport system you can actually use."[64] They had originally selected the chair of Hednesford Town Council, Kathryn Downs.[65] Downs and other councillors resigned their party memberships to create a new independent group of councillors in June 2020.[66]

Independents and minor party candidates

Campaigning

Labour party candidates were critical of the promises Andy Street made in his 2017 election, noting how he wished to end homelessness in his term when it has in fact doubled.[27][69] The Birmingham Mail noted that in November 2019 only 81 of the targeted 225 people were housed.[6] One Labour mayor candidate Salma Yaqoob compared Street's performance on homelessness to Andy Burnham's Mayor of Greater Manchester, who has reduced homelessness.[69] Peter Lowe, Labour candidate and former leader of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council criticised Street's isolation of the Combined Authority, how he wasted public money on consultants and how he relies on High Speed 2 (HS2) to bring investment to the city region.[27] This argument on HS2 was echoed by Tony Berkeley, a Labour member of the House of Lords, who stated as he resigned from HS2's review panel who said "Should we go ahead? It depends on whether you think Andy Street's mayoral chances are worth £106 billion".[70]

By December 2019 it was believed that Conservative candidate Andy Street had amassed a campaign fund of £3 million.[69] In an article for Conservative Home, Street details how crime is a rising concern in the city region and, although his role does not coving policing and crime, wished to support and work with the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner candidate for the area, Jay Singh-Sohal.[71] Prior to the election campaign in December 2019, Street stated that council tax across the city region may have to increase in 2021.[6] Street has set targets of delivering 215,000 homes in the city region by 2030 as well as the West Midlands being carbon neutral by 2041.[72] On 4 February Street release a prospective metro map for the West Midlands city region transport by 2040 should he get elected. The plan features 8 lines for the West Midlands Metro tram network and 21 new train stations.[73] It has been noted that the branding used on the map puts Street's name in green rather than blue and with no branding associated with the Conservatives.[74]

Upon his selection as the Labour candidate on 6 February, Liam Byrne made reducing homelessness in the city region a core part of his campaign and making the city carbon neutral by introducing a Green New Deal for the West Midlands.[75][22]

Ashvir Sangha, a social entrepreneur and former organiser in the 'Brum Young Leaders' programme, is standing as an independent candidate. He laid out his launch into politics with the slogan "Our West Midlands", and set out his six key commitments for the city-region.[67]

On September 21, 2020, Byrne appointed the Liberal Democrats 2017 candidate Beverley Nielsen, as his Climate Tsar for his campaign, stating that Liam's plans on making the West Midlands the UK's first zero-carbon region as "exciting and ambitious" and added "We have so much potential in our region and we should be at the very heart of green manufacturing.".[76]

References
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  36. Byrne, Liam (15 January 2020). "TODAY @WMLabour members start choosing OUR candidate to take on the Tory Mayor WATCH why Gordon Brown @johnmcdonnellmp @TSSAunion @GMB_union @CommunityUnion @UsdawUnion @labourirish @Chinese4Labour @LabourDfID @CoopParty @SocialistHealth @thefabians have united to say #VoteLiam!". @liambyrnemp. Retrieved 18 January 2020 – via Twitter.
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  39. Kaur Gill MP, Preet (16 January 2020). "Today I cast my vote for @liambyrnemp to be Labours West Midlands mayoral candidate. He has the experience and international reach that will transform our region. His priorities are our priorities. Climate justice, building more homes, investing in our public transport and Jobs". @PreetKGillMP. Retrieved 18 January 2020 – via Twitter.
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  43. GMB West Midlands (16 January 2020). "The ballots have gone out to @wmlabour members to chose our candidate for #WMidsMayor We need a candidate who can bring voters back to Labour and bring #RadicalCompassion to the role That's why @GMB_union are backing @liambyrnemp". @GMBWestMidlands. Retrieved 18 January 2020 – via Twitter.
  44. Lowe, Pete (17 January 2020). "Thank you to the North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll for backing #TeamPete Just as Jamie did, we will be putting forward an agenda of Radical Regional Renewal to deliver for the West Midlands Get your vote completed today!". @LabourPete. Retrieved 18 January 2020 – via Twitter.
  45. Lowe, Pete (28 July 2019). "Thank you to @unionroger, Assistant General Secretary of @unisontweets for joining our campaign this #SocialistSunday. He's completely right, we have to organise in our communities to deliver transformative change for our region". @LabourPete. Retrieved 18 January 2020 – via Twitter.
  46. FBU West Midlands (9 June 2019). "We're delighted to announce that we are endorsing @LabourPete in his bid to be the Labour candidate for West Midlands metro mayor. We're convinced that Pete, a lifelong trade unionist, will stand up for our members and be the voice the West Mids desperately needs". @WestMidlandsFBU. Retrieved 18 January 2020 – via Twitter.
  47. UNISON West Midlands (15 January 2020). "UNISON is delighted to be backing @LabourPete along with our brothers and sisters in the FBU, NUM, Musicians' Union, BFAWU Pete is the only candidate who is an active trade unionist, and the only candidate with significant high-level local government experience He's #OneOfUS". @unisonwestmids. Retrieved 18 January 2020 – via Twitter.
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  50. Yaqoob, Salma (17 January 2020). "Thank you Owen Jones @OwenJones84 for your consistent support and endorsement of my @UKLabour candidacy for West Midlands Metro Mayor #Salma4Mayor #ForTheMany". @SalmaYaqoob. Retrieved 18 January 2020 – via Twitter.
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  54. Yaqoob, Salma (17 January 2020). "Thank you to journalist and author Ellie Mae O'Hagan @MissEllieMae for endorsing my candidacy for West Midlands Metro Mayor". @SalmaYaqoob. Retrieved 18 January 2020 – via Twitter.
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