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
We've had the first couple of results through in the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) election
The count in Solihull showed 33,159 votes for the Conservative candidate, Tom Byrne, and 21,184 for Labour's Simon Foster, who already holds the post.
In Wolverhampton it went the other way, with 31,972 for Mr Foster and 20,863 for Mr Byrne.
Richard Price
BBC News, West Midlands
Conservative Philip Seccombe has been re-elected for a third term as Warwickshire's police and crime commissioner (PCC).
Mr Seccombe was first elected as the PCC in 2016 and won a second term in May 2021.
Image source, ConservativesPhilip Seccombe has been Warwickshire police and crime commissioner since 2016
Akhmed Yakoob, who is standing as an independent candidate for the West Midlands mayoral election is also at the count.
The pro-Palestine candidate says he will be an advocate for people in Gaza, Kashmir and Khalistan. He has been backed by MP George Galloway, who was victorious in the recent Rochdale by-election.
He has also campaigned for more international investment in the region and more homes on former industrial sites.
There has been talk in the last couple of days about the impact of the Muslim vote on this West Midlands mayoral election, but there are other important factors too.
The struggles of the Labour-run Birmingham City Council, which effectively had to declare itself bankrupt is one of them.
The BBC's political editor, Chris Mason, said the authority "has basically run out of money, has had to hike up council tax through the ceiling and cut services at the same time.
"Surprise, surprise a combination of those two things is not popular and may also have an impact on the Labour vote in the city, if not in the wider region," he said.
Josh Sandiford
BBC News, West Midlands
We’ve just been told they are finalising figures for the Birmingham result.
They will be taking those to Coventry City Council which is running the election for it to be approved.
The rest of the boroughs and cities appear to be in a similar position. It doesn’t look like there’s any counting happening now. People are chatting, drinking coffee, reading books and eating lunch.
“We are getting there so thank you for your patience,“ people in hall are told.
It looks like our result in the West Midlands mayoral race could be closer to 14:00 than 16:00.
Local Democracy Reporting Service
Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Yardley has been speaking at the count.
She has unsurprisingly been critical of Andy Street's time in office and said: “I don’t mean to be glib – there is no evidence of what the West Midlands Combined Authority does in my constituency."
“I have to say in Yardley, the only thing I know that the mayor has done so far is ruin the 11 bus which in Birmingham is like literally setting fire to our flag."
Ms Phillips added: "I very much hope if Richard Parker wins, and I very much hope that is the case, we’ll start a new era of actually representing the people.”
She also said she was “pleased” with Labour’s performance in the local elections.
Jane Haynes from Birmingham Live has been summing up the West Midlands mayor race as an "interesting juxtaposition of one man versus a party".
She told BBC News Andy Street's campaign was "all about brand Andy".
"This is a man who is saying to the voters 'vote for me as a person, vote for me on my record in the mayoralty over the last seven years, forget about all that lot down in Westminster," she explained.
On the other side, she said "for Labour, it's all about the Labour Party".
We've just had the turnout figures in the West Midlands mayor election.
The overall figure is 29.81%, but there is some variation around the region.
That ranges from 34.95% in Solihull to 28.47% in Birmingham.
For comparison, the turnout in 2021 was 31.23%.
Josh Sandiford
BBC News, West Midlands
There are now more cameras, more journalists, more political advisors and a bit more noise here in Birmingham.
We’ve already seen the incumbent mayor Andy Street arrive and the Conservative PCC candidate Tom Byrne has also been wandering around.
We’re yet to see Labour’s Richard Parker and Simon Foster, who are standing for mayor and PCC respectively.
Among the arrivals, the BBC's Political Editor Chris Mason - suitcase in tow!
Richard Price
BBC News, West Midlands
We now have the turnout figures for the Warwickshire PCC election.
Overall turnout was 25.95% which is down on the 38.45% turnout in 2021 when there were county council elections taking place on the same day.
Individual districts were as follows:
There were 117,518 votes cast out of a total electorate of 452,921 in the county.
The result of the election is expected at around 14:00 BST.
We’ve put together a guide where you can find out everything you need to know about each of the six mayoral candidates.
Have a read here.
Rob Mayor
Political editor, West Midlands
The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner election very nearly didn’t happen.
West Midlands Mayor Andy Street wanted the powers of Mayor and PCC combined after these elections, a stance backed by the home office.
But police and crime commissioner Simon Foster took the Home Office to court about the way they consulted the public over that change.
He won, so the election took place. It’s likely the winner will serve a full four-year term, but 12 years after they were created, critics say PCC roles have never really taken off.
Image source, BBC/LabourWe're still a few hours away from the expected result in the West Midlands mayor election, but the Conservative candidate, Andy Street has just arrived.
He is seeking a third term after victories in 2017 and 2021.
During the campaign he pledged to open nine new tram stations, three new railway stations, build a new interchange in Dudley and introduce new trains on the Cross-City Line.
He also set a target of building 15,257 new homes every year to beat the housing crisis and to build on brownfield land.
Joshua Nevett
BBC political reporter, Coventry and Warwickshire
Back to the police commissioner race in Warwickshire, where Conservative Philip Seccombe is narrowly ahead in the first district to release figures.
Mr Seccombe said he expected to win in North Warwickshire. But he sounded nervous about the overall result given there were only 100 votes between him and Labour's candidate.
At 26%, the county-wide turnout was much lower than the 38% seen for the last election in 2021. No one is sure who that will favour. Full result expected at about 14:00.
Rob Mayor
Political editor, West Midlands
Siobhan Harper-Nunes, the Green Party candidate in the West Midlands mayor election has said 'it's hard to know' how she has done.
The Green vote share could be key if this turns out to be a very close race.
Ms Harper-Nunes started Birmingham-based Shakti Women in 2006, when she saw the juggle many face trying to balance families, careers and lives.
During the campaign she said politicians should be leading by example, not fanning the flames of hate.
There should be “no room in politics for the ugly Islamaphobia and antisemitism," she said.
Richard Price
BBC News, West Midlands
The first set of results have come in from the Warwickshire police and crime commissioner election count.
Conservative candidate Philip Seccombe has received 3,766 votes in North Warwickshire - ahead of Labour rival Sarah Feeney on 3,651 and Liberal Democrat Richard Dickson on 1,013.
As with the West Midlands contests, we'll get figures for each district before the final tally is revealed.
Image source, ConservativesConservative candidate, Philip Seccombe
Let's take a look at the borough breakdowns from the last West Midlands mayoral count.
It's worth noting there is a different electoral system in play this time around. The 2024 election will be the first held under the first-past-the-post method, similar to Westminster elections.
In 2021, incumbent Andy Street was elected under the supplementary method. That saw voters’ second choices taken into account for the strongest two candidates as Mr Street got the most votes but failed to reach 50% in the first round.
Taking into account first choice votes, which are the only which will be counted this time, this is how the boroughs voted:
Liam Byrne (Labour): Birmingham, Coventry, Sandwell
Andy Street (Conservatives): Dudley, Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton
As the figures come in this time, we'll get an idea how the race has changed compared to 2021.
Will Labour's Richard Parker be able to better Mr Byrne?
Over in the East Midlands, our neighbours have elected their first regional mayor.
The former vice-chair of the Conservative party Ben Bradley lost to Labour's Claire Ward, the former MP for Watford.
She won the election with a 52,000 vote majority.
Image source, PA MediaThe role covers Derby, Nottingham, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been there this morning to congratulate their candidate.
He said the region is "a really, really important area" for Labour.
"When the history books are written about this period of our political history in the United Kingdom, this will be part of that story", he added.
The 2024 mayoral election are the first to be held under the first-past-the-post method, similar to Westminster elections.
In 2021, Andy Street was elected under the supplementary method which saw voters’ second choices taken into account for the strongest two candidates (as Mr Street failed to reach 50% of vote in first round).
He had a 48.7% share of the vote after the first round in 2021, compared with Liam Byrne, who had 39.7%.
Image source, Reuters
Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert
Conservative mayor Ben Houchen was re-elected in Tees Valley on Friday, and the party will hope to see similar success in the West Midlands and London today.
However, these mayoral elections are basically a comfort blanket of consolation and not really something on which to base a realistic assessment of how the Tories might perform in a general election.
These metro mayor contests were designed so people didn't necessarily vote for the same party they usually would in a national election.
The truth is that we know from polling in Teesside and the West Midlands that many voters were willing to vote for a Tory mayor but don't back the party nationally.
For that reason, these contests don't necessarily provide a good guide as to what will happen when the country goes to the polls.