Conservative candidate Ben Adams has been re-elected as Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for the Staffordshire Police area.
Mr Adams took 45.57 per cent of the votes, a total of 73,500, with Labour’s Alastair Watson taking second place just 3,000 votes behind – 70,128 and 43.48 per cent of the total votes.
The remaining candidate, Alec Sandiford from the Liberal Democrats received 17,666 votes, 10.95 per cent of all those cast.
The overall turnout was 19.24 per cent, but turnout across the county ranged from 15.4 per cent in Stoke-on-Trent to 24.82 per cent in Cannock Chase District.
Mr Adams, pictured above, has been Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner since 2021 and claimed in his election statement that he has boosted the county’s police force by more than 250 officers and that his team secured over £4 million for Safer Streets, Safer Women at Night and anti-social behaviour hot-spot patrols.
He said: “It is a unique privilege to be an elected Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner. The role is constantly challenging, always hard work, sometimes upsetting but very rewarding. I thank the residents of Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire for putting their trust in me again. I won’t let them down.”
A number of local and regional elections took place across England on Thursday with the Conservatives losing hundreds of council seats across the country and Labour celebrating a string of mayoral and council wins.
The Labour Party gained a clear majority on Cannock Chase District Council where all 36 seats were up for grabs after boundary lines were withdrawn.
Labour won 21 seats (+11), Conservatives 10 seats (-11) and Green Party 5 seats (+1).
The council was previously under no overall control and run by a Labour-Green coalition, with seats held (as at September 2023) Conservatives (18), Labour (18) and Greens (5).
Under recent boundary review changes, the number of councillors was cut from 41 to 36.
In Stoke-on-Trent, Labour retained its seat in Meir North with candidate Lauren Davidson comfortably taking the most votes in a Stoke-on-Trent City Council by-election.
She received 469 of the votes cast, with Michelle Swift of the City Independents coming in second place with 216 votes and Khawar Ali, of the Conservatives coming third with 185 votes.
The turnout for the by-election, held after previous Labour ward councillor Desiree Elliott resigned in March, was 17.61 per cent.
