Labour retains South Yorkshire mayoral position
Oliver Coppard is the new South Yorkshire mayor.
The Labour party candidate succeeds Barnsley Central MP Dan Jarvis who announced last year he would step down after one term as he believed being both “a Mayor and an MP wasn’t a long-term arrangement”.
Coppard took 43% of the first preference vote but failed to reach the 50% threshold leading to him and Conservative candidate Clive Watkinson going head to head. The final result saw Labour’s man receive 143,476 votes (71.4%) to Watkinson’s 57,347 (28.6%).
After the election Coppard said it was time to deliver on the promises he made on the campaign trail which included a hustings hosted by TheBusinessDesk.com in Doncaster and organised by the CBI, FSB and the South Yorkshire chambers of commerce.
In a letter posted online after the result was announced Coppard said: “I could not be more excited or more proud to be writing this letter as your next mayor; to be elected to represent and to lead the place I was born and raised, my home and my community.”
He added that from Monday he “will get to work delivering the manifesto on which I was elected. restoring the pride, the purpose and the prosperity of South Yorkshire”, but did admit that whilst promising to be the champion, friend and ally for the region he “may not be able to solve every problem”.
Most notably the new mayor spoke directly to the Prime Minister in his first address as mayor.
“My message to Boris Johnson and the government in London is this, things have to change. Enough is enough we cannot continue to be denied the opportunity to restore and renew South Yorkshire; to create a region that is healthier, wealthier and happier; to create good jobs and new industries, to fix our buses, grasp the opportunities of net-zero, and bring our communities together.”
Coppard’s election comes 12 months after the first West Yorkshire mayor was elected and amidst ongoing discussions about what the future of devolution in Yorkshire is, with York and North Yorkshire favouring similar mayoral models, while East Yorkshire councils have rejected plans in favour of a combined authority chaired by one of the council bosses on a rotating basis.
The government outlined its continued support for devolution in February with the publishing of its Levelling Up White Paper, with Yorkshire leaders welcoming this support but stating more funding would be needed.
