Elections 2021: Conservative Festus Akinbusoye is new Bedfordshire PCC

Conservative Festus Akinbusoye has been elected as Bedfordshire's next police and crime commissioner (PCC).

Mr Akinbusoye defeated Labour's David Michael after a second round of votes were counted at Luton's Inspire Centre.

Following the second count, Mr Akinbusoye won 59,793 votes, compared to Mr Michael's 50,815.

The result constitutes a Conservative hold, although Kathryn Holloway, the PCC since 2016, did not seek re-election.

PCCs are elected to oversee the work of their local police force.

Liberal Democrat Jas Parmar, English Democrat Antonio Vitiello and Independent Patrick Hamill were eliminated after the first round of voting.

PCCs are elected using the supplementary vote system, with people making a first and second choice.

If no candidate gets more than 50% of the first-choice votes, all except the top two candidates are eliminated.

At that stage the second votes of those residents whose first choice has been eliminated are counted.

The battle to become Bedfordshire's new Police and Crime Commissioner was one to keep an eye on, considering the role has already been held by both a Labour and Conservative since its inception in 2012.

In the end though, the Tories won after the second round with new candidate Festus Akinbusoye - standing in place of incumbent Kathryn Holloway - triumphing over Labour's David Michael by almost 9,000 votes.

Akinbusoye has a tough act to follow as on Kathryn Holloway's watch Bedfordshire Police has gone from being rated the worst in the country to a 'Good' rating by inspectors.

In the first round of results, Mr Akinbusoye took the lead with 51,700 votes (42.4%).

Mr Michael got 42,708 (35%) votes, Mr Parmer got 15,983 (13.1%), Mr Hamill got 8,279 (6.8%) and Mr Vitiello 3,387 (2.8%).

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