New mayor to 'prioritise place over party'

THE new West of England Mayor has said things will be “quite different” under her than under the previous Labour mayor.

- JOHN WIMPERIS Local Democracy Reporter

Labour's Helen Godwin was elected West of England Mayor in the early hours of yesterday.

With 51,197 votes, she narrowly beat Reform UK’s Arron Banks, who received 45,252 votes.

Speaking after the declaration of the results, Ms Godwin said: “It was always going to be close; we knew that.”

But she said she had been backed by a brilliant campaign. She said: “We did what we needed to do so I am absolutely over the moon.”

But the party’s share of the vote fell from 33.4% in the last election in 2021 down to 25%, while Reform surged into second place.

And in the City of Bristol, Labour only got about 2,500 more votes than the Greens.

Despite the stark challenge, Ms Godwin said: “I don’t think we're fighting on two fronts.”

She said: “I don’t see it as a fight against Reform or the Greens - but I do see that we have got a progressive majority in our part of the world but there are obviously people that are unhappy today, who didn’t choose to vote for me that maybe might have done.

“So we've got to work with those but we've got to also get a place that feels like it works for everyone and that’s now my job.”

JOHN WIMPERIS

Local Democracy Reporter

Ms Godwin said the first thing she would be doing as West of England Mayor would be looking at buses, as that was what everyone had asked her to look at.