Summary

  • Richard Parker defeats incumbent Andy Street to become mayor of the West Midlands

  • Just 1508 votes separated the Labour winner and his Conservative rival Andy Street

  • Elsewhere, Labour's Simon Foster is re-elected as the West Midlands police and crime commissioner

  • Conservative Philip Seccombe wins Warwickshire PCC election

  • Thursday saw councillors elected at 107 local authorities across England, as well as PCCs across the region

  1. Only Sandwell left to declarepublished at 19:33 British Summer Time 4 May

    Sandwell is the last area to declare its results.

    Labour now need to collect 11,446 votes more than the Tories to win overall.

  2. Coventry results announcedpublished at 19:25 British Summer Time 4 May

    The results from the Coventry count in the mayoral race are now in...

    • Siobhan Harper-Nunes, Green Party - 4,292
    • Richard Parker, Labour - 32,704
    • Andy Street, Conservative - 23,237
    • Sunny Virk, Liberal Democrats - 2,711
    • Elaine Williams, Reform UK - 3,943
    • Akhmed Yakoob, independent - 3,639

    Just one more count to come - in Sandwell - to complete the vote.

  3. Blues downpublished at 19:12 British Summer Time 4 May

    Josh Sandiford
    BBC News, West Midlands

    Today's declarations at Birmingham's International Convention Centre are clearly going on longer than expected, as we continue to wait for the outcome of one blue v red contest.The fate of the city's other blues, Birmingham City FC, has already been sealed with relegation today. While we await a final declaration here, these tables are already being set up for the club's end of season awards which are taking place tomorrow night!

    Tables at the ICC
  4. MP Mitchell says Street has done extremely wellpublished at 19:04 British Summer Time 4 May

    The Conservative MP, Andrew Mitchell, has been speaking about the West Midlands mayoral election and has praised the performance of his party's candidate.

    "If it had reflected the polls, Andy Street would be nowhere. So the fact that we are now into recount territory means either Andy Street has won, or he's done extremely well," he said.

    Andrew Mitchell

    Mr Mitchell also said: "Were Andy Street to win, then I think that would pose very serious questions for Keir Starmer about his electability when the general election comes."

    And he said voters would have been well aware they were voting Conservative, even if Andy Street had tried to make a vote for him a vote for him personally and not the party.

  5. Where does this leave us?published at 18:52 British Summer Time 4 May

    There are just two counts to declare a result now: Coventry, where a recount is underway, and Sandwell.

    And at this stage it's still very close.

    Andy Street leads Richard Parker by just over 20,000 votes from the first five declarations, but both Coventry and Sandwell went to Labour in 2021.

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  6. Watch BBC Politics Midlands for mayoral reactionpublished at 18:47 British Summer Time 4 May

    It looks like it's going to be a fascinating finish to an incredibly tight mayoral race and no doubt both parties will have plenty to say afterwards.

    BBC Politics Midlands will be there with all the fallout tomorrow morning. Join Rob Mayor at 10:00 BST on BBC One and iPlayer.

    Rob Mayor in the Politics Midlands studio
  7. Mayoral contest on a knife edge stillpublished at 18:32 British Summer Time 4 May

    Chris Mason
    Political editor

    Senior Conservative and Labour sources now think the West Midlands Mayoral contest currently has under 2,000 votes in it, across the whole region.

    The recount in Coventry continues.

  8. Yakoob's vote a possible blow to Labourpublished at 18:30 British Summer Time 4 May

    Akhmed Yakoob's vote in the Birmingham count is big not just for him, but potentially for Labour too.

    In 2021, under a different voting system, Labour had a 18,000 vote lead over Andy Street in the Birmingham City Council authority area.

    This time it is just 14,000 and many will speculate that some of those votes have gone to the pro-Palestinian Mr Yakoob.

    Akhmed Yakoob
  9. Street claims reduced win in Dudleypublished at 18:19 British Summer Time 4 May

    Andy Street has claimed another win, this time in the Dudley count, but it's down significantly on 2021.

    Then he had a margin of 29,000 over the Labour candidate, this time his lead is 12,000.

    Mr Street received 37,345 votes this time, to Richard Parker's 24,807.

  10. Andy Street's personal votepublished at 18:12 British Summer Time 4 May

    Professor Sir John Curtice
    Polling expert

    We've had the result of the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner election where Labour were already holding the office.

    The swing in that was 4.5%, which of course is exactly what Richard Parker needs in order to defeat Andy Street.

    Clearly Andy Street has done better than his Conservative colleague on the Police and Crime Commissioner election.

    That in itself is a testament to the fact that Andy Street personally can win votes that other Conservatives in the West Midlands cannot necessarily do.

  11. Street claims Walsall winpublished at 18:04 British Summer Time 4 May

    This seems to be going back and forth now.

    Following the declaration of a Parker win in Birmingham, we have a win for Andy Street in Walsall.

    The Conservative received 24,735 votes to the Labour man's 18,097.

    The independent, Akhmed Yakoob, came third and received 8,451.

    Significantly perhaps, Andy Street won this count by 16,000 at the last election (remembering as always that the voting system was different)

  12. Parker ahead in Birmingham votepublished at 17:46 British Summer Time 4 May

    We've had the results from the Birmingham count in the West Midlands mayoral election - it's another clear win for Richard Parker, but he's down on 2021.

    He received 80,251 votes to Andy Street's 66,296.

    And the independent, Akhmed Yakoob, picked up 42,923 votes.

  13. Mayoral candidates to be briefed on Birmingham countpublished at 17:27 British Summer Time 4 May

    Josh Sandiford
    BBC News, West Midlands

    Candidates have been asked back up on stage here in Birmingham.

    We've been told provisional figures for the city's count will be shared with them once bundle checks have been completed.

    Remember, Birmingham is just one of seven electoral areas in the race, but it is the largest.

  14. Foster thanks team for victorypublished at 17:22 British Summer Time 4 May

    More from Simon Foster, who has been re-elected as West Midlands police and crime commissioner.

    He thanked voters and Labour Party staff and members who had worked tirelessly for delivering the result.

    "I've had a truly brilliant team," he said. "I cannot name you all but you know who you are."

    "The only honour and privilige greater than being elected by our fellow citiezns is to be re-elected by your fellow citizens," he said.

    I started my career in law 44 years ago and I have dedicated my entire adult professional life to the justice system.

    He said the role of the PCC was as important as the role of mayor and needed a democratic mandate to reduce crime.

    Simon Foster after his victory
  15. A recap of today so farpublished at 17:08 British Summer Time 4 May

    We could be in for a wait for the West Midlands mayor result, so here's a recap of the day so far:

    • The Conservative Philip Seccombe won the Warwickshire PCC election by just 261 votes
    • Labour's Simon Foster won the West Midlands PCC election by 86,017 votes
    • In the mayoral vote Labour's Richard Parker secures a big win in the Wolverhampton area
    • Conservative Andy Street wins in Solihull, but by less than last time
    • A recount is ordered in Coventry
  16. Full recount in Coventrypublished at 16:54 British Summer Time 4 May

    We've just been told there will now be a full recount of the mayoral votes in Coventry.

  17. Final result in PCC electionpublished at 16:50 British Summer Time 4 May

    We've just had the overall result in the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner election and it was a convincing win for Labour's Simon Foster.

    He beat his Conservative rival Tom Byrne by 327,844 votes to 241,827.

    We should have the candidates speaking soon.

  18. 'An extremely effective mayor'published at 16:49 British Summer Time 4 May

    Henry Hill, the acting editor of Conservative Home has said that if Andy Street loses in the West Midlands mayor election it would be "an extremely disappointing result".

    "Not withstanding the impact on the party and everything else, Andy has been an extremely effective mayor of the West Midlands," he told BBC News.

    Mr Hill added that if the Conservatives have asked for a recount, as is believed, that "suggests that he is behind."

    And he said that a defeat for Mr Street would be a blow to Rishi Sunak, because "Andy Street was his best hope for a bright spot" in what has been an otherwise bad set of results for the party.

  19. 'Street not immune to laws of political gravity'published at 16:35 British Summer Time 4 May

    Professor Sir John Curtice
    Polling expert

    In all of these mayoral contests we have been seeing swings from Conservative to Labour

    Mr Street is not necessarily immune to the laws of political gravity and whereas Ben Houchen had an incredibly large majority to defend because he was so successful back in 2021, Mr Street was always fighting a much more marginal contest.

    It was always the case that he was potentially vulnerable.

  20. Final result in West Midlands PCC votepublished at 16:26 British Summer Time 4 May

    We've just had the final votes in the West Midlands PCC election and it's confirmed what we already knew - Labour's Simon Foster is returning for a second term.

    He won the Walsall vote by 28,141 to 26,738.