The Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner ran against five other candidates.

Local elections have been held in council areas across Tyneside.

Sunderland Council elections see the Conservatives losing the main opposition role to the Lib Dems.

The party takes control of Hartlepool council after wining nine of the 12 seats up for grabs.

Here is a round-up of today's election results:

• Conservative Ben Houchen has been re-elected as Tees Valley Mayor
• Labour's Kim McGuinness has been elected as the first North East Mayor
• Labour gained control of Hartlepool Council from no overall control
• Labour kept control of Newcastle, Gateshead and South Tyneside Councils - but with its majority heavily cut in South Tyneside
• Labour's David Allen was elected Cumbria police, fire and crime commissioner

The results for the Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria police and crime commissioners are expected later on Friday afternoon.

The North Tyneside Council election results are due to be declared on Saturday afternoon.

You can follow the results on the BBC Tees, BBC Tyne and BBC Wear websites.

That's the end of our live updates here for today.

Helen Richardson
Political correspondent, BBC Radio Newcastle

A comfortable win for Labour's Kim McGuinness - she took 185,051 votes. It was a hard-fought campaign.

Her rival, the independent candidate Jamie Driscoll, took 126,652.

His voters will be disappointed but Kim McGuinness has taken the job of the North East's first elected mayor.

Her priorities will be tackling child poverty and delivering an integrated transport system with buses under public control.

In her acceptance speech she thanked her team, her family, but most importantly the voters.

Another key battle came for third place.

The Conservatives just beat Reform. In Sunderland, where the result was announced, Reform performed very well. Their candidate Paul Donaghy came second in Sunderland’s area count. But it wasn’t enough the hold back the Conservatives who came third overall.

Image source, NORTH NEWS AND PICTURES

Louise Hobson
BBC Radio Tees

Counting for Cleveland’s police and crime commissioner got under way on Friday afternoon, at Thornaby Pavillion.

Current PCC, Conservative Steve Turner, is standing along with Labour's Matt Storey.

The count is expected to finish at about 17:00 BST.

Daniel Holland
Local Democracy Reporter

Labour’s Kim McGuinness has won the race to become the first mayor of the North East.

She secured a majority of almost 60,000 to emerge victorious in the historic mayoral election, holding off a challenge from independent Jamie Driscoll.

Polling released last weekend had suggested that the Labour candidate and Mr Driscoll were neck and neck in the race to become the region’s new political figurehead, but she ultimately secured a comfortable margin of victory.

The 38-year-old, a former councillor in Newcastle and current Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, said the election marked a “really big moment for the North East as we take the first step to taking control of our own future”.

She pledged to turn the North East into the “real home of opportunity” with new jobs and green industries and major public transport overhaul, including bringing privatised bus services back under public control.

Labour's Kim McGuinness has been elected North East Mayor with more than 185,000 votes - 41% of the share.

In second place was independent candidate and current North of Tyne Mayor, Jamie Driscoll, with more than 126,600 votes, a 28% share.

Conservative candidate Guy Renner-Thompson was third with 52,446, a share of nearly 12%, with Reform candidate Paul Donaghy fourth, Liberal Democrat Aidan King fifth and Green Party candidate Andrew Gray sixth.

Image source, North News and Pictures

Labour's Kim McGuinness has become the first North East Mayor after wining Thursday's election.

On a poor night for the Conservatives in local elections, Ben Houchen is returned as the mayor of the Tees Valley.

Labour has reacted to Lord Houchen's win as Tees Valley Mayor, calling the result a "wake-up call" for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Lord Houchen got 53.6% of the vote on Thursday, a reduction on the 73% he took in 2021.

A Labour spokesperson said: "This swing towards Labour in Tees Valley puts Labour on track to win every single seat in the area in a general election.

"The Conservatives should be extremely worried that their candidate had to run as an independent to win.

"If Rishi Sunak doesn't take this result as a major wake-up call he is in denial."

Helen Richardson
Political correspondent, BBC Radio Newcastle

Two of the main contenders for the North East Mayor role have now arrived at the count.

Jamie Driscoll and Kim McGuinness are both in Sunderland, with the winner expected to be announced shortly.

Image source, PA Media

Ben Houchen said it was the "greatest honour anyone could give me" to be re-elected as mayor in the "place where I'm going to be for the rest of my life".

However, he also acknowledged there was "still a long way to go".

Lord Houchen said: "I am absolutely humbled by everybody that voted for me, Teesside is a place where I was born where I grew up, other than a very short sabbatical to Newcastle for four years and then I came straight back.

"It's a place where I'm going to be for the rest of my life.

"And to be re-elected for a third term in my home, in my community, is absolutely the greatest honour anyone could give me."

The Conservative candidate has secured his third term as Tees Valley Mayor.

Richard Moss
Political editor, North East & Cumbria

Ben Houchen’s win will be a relief to him but also to Rishi Sunak.

It proves a Conservative can still win in the areas the Prime Minister needs to retain to stay in government, even if it was a far tighter result than when the Tory mayor took 73% of the vote in 2021.

But perhaps not just any Conservative can win.

Despite a controversial second term where he’s had to face constant questions about a deal with local businessmen to regenerate a former steelworks site, the main problem he faced was his own party’s crashing poll ratings.

Ben Houchen was clear then in his campaign that supporters should base their choice of mayor on local issues and ignore Westminster politics.

It has worked for him, but is not likely to be an appeal the area’s Conservative MPs can repeat come a General Election.

Labour will then feel they did well enough here to set the party on course to undo the 2019 gains Boris Johnson made in their heartlands - and perhaps a bit more.

Image source, PA Media

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

The Conservatives will be delighted with this success - the first silver lining in these elections for them in what has otherwise been a very cloudy electoral night.

Indeed, although Houchen's vote has fallen by 19% since 2021, his performance is still 14% above what he achieved in the first contest in 2017.

However, we know from polling conducted during the campaign that, when voters were asked how they would vote in a general election, the reported support for the Conservatives was 21% below what was recorded for Houchen.

This is not therefore a reliable guide to the Conservatives' prospects in the general election in the area.

Rather, as the result Houchen achieved in 2021 testifies, this is a consequence of his personal popularity.

Lord Houchen won all five council areas but with a reduced majority over Labour.

His majority has been cut from 73% in 2021 to 53.6% this year.

Labour got 41.3% while the Liberal Democrats received 5.0% of the votes.

The turnout was 31%, down by 3.10% since the last election.

Conservative Ben Houchen has won a third term as Tees Valley Mayor.

Ben Houchen has won the fourth of five local authorities in the Tees Valley mayoral election.

In Darlington, he got 14,233 votes ahead of 10,014 for Labour's Chris McEwan and 1,849 for Simon Thorley of the Liberal Democrats.

Lord Houchen has already won Hartlepool, Redcar and Middlesbrough, with just Stockton still to be announced.