2021 West Yorkshire mayoral election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
6 May 2021
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 36.5% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The inaugural West Yorkshire mayoral election was held on Thursday 6 May 2021 to elect the Mayor of West Yorkshire. It took place simultaneously on the same day as other local elections across the United Kingdom, including council elections in each of the five metropolitan boroughs of West Yorkshire.
It was conducted using the supplementary vote (SV) electoral system. The new mayor would chair and lead the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, and incorporate the previous responsibilities of the police and crime commissioner for West Yorkshire, with the latter being abolished.[1]
The contest was the first election for a governing body for the West Yorkshire region since the last West Yorkshire County Council election in 1981, before the county council's abolition in 1986. An initial three-year term was granted for the inaugural mayor, with four-year terms thereafter.[2][3]
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) was first proposed in 2012 as part of the City Deal for the Leeds City Region. It was negotiated between the coalition government, Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership and the five West Yorkshire boroughs of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield.[4][5] The combined authority was established on 1 April 2014, following a public consultation and statutory approval on 31 March 2014.[6][7] There was support from the five boroughs for a "One Yorkshire" proposal, which would have elected a mayor for the entire Yorkshire region. However it was rejected by the government in 2019.[8][9]
The devolution deal was formally signed on 12 March 2020 in the Nexus building at the University of Leeds. After further negotiations, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced in the March 2020 UK budget that the government and the West Yorkshire authorities had agreed a proposed West Yorkshire devolution deal.[10][11][12]
The mayor's role includes handling of a £38 million a year investment from central government for 30 years.[13] The mayor has control over regional transport (including creating a regional mass transit system), housing, land (with responsibility for creating a city region spatial plan) and adult skills.[3][14] Though the role was initially planned to absorb the responsibilities of the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner – similar to the mayor of London and the mayor of Greater Manchester – in 2024,[2][3] changes in January 2021 meant that the role was being incorporated into the Mayor's office for May 2021.[15]
Prior to the election, the Labour Party had control of all five boroughs of the city-region. However, in the 2019 general election, Labour lost four seats in West Yorkshire to the Conservative Party.[16]
