2021 West Midlands mayoral election

← 2017 6 May 2021 2024 →
Turnout	31.2%4.5%
Candidate Andy Street Liam Byrne Steve Caudwell Party Conservative Labour Co-op Green First Round  299,318 244,009 35,559 Percentage 48.7% 39.7% 5.8% Swing 6.8pp 1.0pp 1.1pp Second Round  314,669 267,626 Eliminated Percentage 54.0% 46.0% Eliminated Swing 3.6pp 3.6pp Eliminated
Second round by local authorities First round by local authorities
Mayor before election Andy Street Conservative ElectedMayor Andy Street Conservative

The2021 West Midlands mayoral election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect themayor of the West Midlands, on the same day asother local elections across England and Wales, including councillors in six of its seven boroughs and thepolice and crime commissioner for theWest Midlandscity region.^[1] This was the second election for the post, which had its first election in 2017 due to theCities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016. The mayor was elected using thesupplementary vote system. The election was originally due to take place in May 2020, but was postponed due to thecoronavirus pandemic.^[2]

The incumbentConservative mayor Andy Street was seeking re-election. TheLabour Party selected theMember of Parliament (MP) forBirmingham Hodge Hill,Liam Byrne, a formerCabinet minister under Prime MinisterGordon Brown, who ran as aLabour and Co-operative Party candidate, whilst theLiberal Democrats chose previous Parliamentary candidate forSutton Coldfield Jenny Wilkinson.

TheWest Midlands isthe second most populouscity-region of theUnited Kingdom afterGreater London.^[3] The position ofMayor of the West Midlands was created in 2017 following adevolution agreement between the UK government and theWest Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). TheCities 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 was set to last until 2020, followed by elections every four years.^[5] In theinaugural election in 2017, the Conservative candidateAndy Street defeated Labour'sSiôn Simon in the final round with 50.4% of the vote.

Prior to the election, thethink tankCentre for Cities looked at the results of local elections in West Midlands for2018 and2019 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".^[6] 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 the1935 general election.^[7][8] 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.^[9]Paul Waugh of theHuffington Post saw the election as a "tough mountain for [Liam] Byrne to climb".^[10] In contrast, writer for theNew Statesman, Stephen Bush argued this is a difficult election for the Conservatives saying that the change in Labour'snational leadership and being several months afterBrexit would change the dynamic of the election.^[11]

The election was postponed until 2021 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.^[2][12] 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.^[13]

Street lobbied the government to integrate thePolice and Crime Commissioner (PCC) role within the mayoral position in time for the 2020 election. This would have put the role's powers on policing in line with both the mayors ofLondon andGreater Manchester. However, this broke down as the Combined Authority struggled with Street's lack of transparency.^[14][15] A public consultation ran in 2019 saw over 6,000 respondents and 58% supported the integration of the PCC role into the metro mayor. However, concern was expressed that local Conservative groups had encouraged people to fill in multiple responses.^[16] In June 2020, Street signed a plan to create a West Midlands National Park, in cooperation with councils in and around the city-region.^[17] In February 2021, the WMCA and mayor agreed on a budget and digital strategy for the project.^[18][19] That same month, a five year plan for decarbonising industry in the West Midlands was drafted for the WMCA.^[20]

The election used asupplementary 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.

Allregistered electors (British, Commonwealth, Irish and European) living the metropolitan boroughs ofBirmingham,Coventry,Dudley,Sandwell,Solihull,Walsall, andWolverhampton aged 18 or over are entitled to vote in the mayoral election.

Prior to the election campaign in December 2019, Street stated that council tax across the city region may have to increase in 2021.^[14] Street set targets of delivering 215,000 homes in the city region by 2030 as well as the West Midlands becomingcarbon neutral by 2041.^[21] On 4 February, Street released a prospective metro map for the West Midlands, planned to be built by 2040 should he get elected. The plan featured eight lines for theWest Midlands Metro tram network and 21 new train stations.^[22] The branding used on the map puts Street's name in green rather than blue and with no branding associated with the Conservatives.^[23]

Liam Byrne, an MP and former minister, was selected as the Labour candidate in February 2020. He made reducing homelessness in the city region a core part of his campaign and making the city carbon neutral by introducing aGreen New Deal for the West Midlands.^[24][25] He appointedBeverley Nielsen, who had been the Liberal Democrat candidate in the 2017 mayoral election, to be his climate lead.^[26]

Ashvir Sangha, asocial entrepreneur and former organiser in the 'Brum Young Leaders' programme, was standing as anindependent 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.^[27] In early April, Sangha withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Andy Street.^[28]

In February 2021, Green candidate Steve Caudwell was critical of government restrictions on campaigning - such as a restriction on volunteers to distribute leaflet; as it restricts smaller, more financially constrained parties.^[29]

Candidates were required to be aged 18 or over and be a British, Commonwealth or European Union citizen. In addition they should fulfil 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.^[30] 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.^[30][31]

Andy Street was re-selected as the Conservative candidate in September 2019.^[32] He was previously the managing director ofJohn Lewis.^[11]

Liam Byrne, MP forBirmingham Hodge Hill, was selected as Labour's candidate in February 2020.^[25] Five politicians showed interest in standing. Two of them:Neena Gill aMember of the European Parliament andLynda Waltho, former MP forStourbridge^[33][34] withdrew their candidacy. The candidates for selection were Byrne,^[35] Pete Lowe, a former leader ofDudley Council and vice chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority^[36][37] andSalma Yaqoob, the former leader of theRespect Party.^[38][39]

The Labour Party delayed their plan to announce their candidate in November 2019 due to the2019 General Election.^[40] The candidates were voted on by Labour Party members in the West Midlands, with the result announced in February 2020.^[37] This was considered late as Labour selected their candidate for the previous election in August 2016 ahead of the May 2017 election.^[41] 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.^[25]

Byrne was considered morecentrist than the other two candidates, who were seen as being on theleft of the party.^[10][42][43] In Byrne's selection campaign he promoted ideas including the West Midlands being a "region of sanctuary" for refugees andmunicipal socialist policies for the city region.^[41] He also promoted his positive relationship and endorsement from the thenshadow chancellorJohn McDonnell.^[44] Journalists including Sienna Rodgers andStephen Bush noted that his success in the selection could be seen as a boost forKeir Starmer's campaign fornational Labour leadership.^[25][44][45]

Jenny Wilkinson, who stood for the party inSutton Coldfield at the2017 and2019 general elections was selected in December 2020.^[46] She also stood for the party for the West Midlands region in the2019 European Parliament Election.^[47] This was after their original selection ofBeverley Nielsen, the party's candidate in the2017 West Midlands mayoral election (announced as the party's candidate in January 2020,^[48]) stood down as Mayoral Candidate in July 2020 citing the struggle to balance the added year of campaigning brought on by the election delay to due the COVID-19 pandemic.^[49] She subsequently resigned from the party, along with three otherMalvern Hills District Council Lib Dems, in protest after the group's new leader pulled out of the authority's ruling coalition administration.^[50] Nielsen was later appointed Liam Byrne's Climate Tsar for the Labour candidate's campaign.^[51]

Wilkinson was well known in her local area, notably for a campaign to save public libraries from closure, as she believed they played a vital part in local communities.^[52]

Steve Caudwell, the party's group leader onSolihull Council and the party's only opposition leader in the West Midlands was announced as the party's candidate in January 2021.^[53] He was standing for: "An end to the West Midlands Poverty Scandal, a genuinely Green Industrial Revolution, and a transport system you can actually use."^[54] They had originally selected the chair of Hednesford Town Council, Kathryn Downs.^[55] Downs and other councillors resigned their party memberships to create a new independent group of councillors in June 2020.^[56]

Pete Durnell, who stood asUKIP's candidate in 2017 and finished 4th but saved his deposit with 5.6% of the 1st round vote, was announced as Reform UK's candidate on 1 April.

• Tim Weller, a transport campaigner, sought to stand as an Independent candidate.^[57]
• Colin Rankine, the Leader of West Midlands based Christian party Yeshua.^[58]

Ashvir Sangha, asocial entrepreneur, was anindependent candidate, under the 'Our West Midlands' slogan, before his withdrawal on 6 April 2021 to endorse the incumbent mayor Andy Street.^[27]

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Graph of opinion polls conducted

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Graph of opinion polls conducted

• 2021 English local elections
• Elections in the West Midlands (county)
• Combined authority mayoral elections in England
• 2020s in the West Midlands (county)

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