Election 2021: Labour wins Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor election

Labour's Nik Johnson has been elected as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor with 51.3% of the vote.

After no candidate received 50% of the vote initially, Mr Johnson beat the incumbent Conservative mayor James Palmer in the second round.

He admitted the win was "a bit of a surprise" as he pledged to deliver a great vision for a Cambridgeshire.

Mr Johnson received 113,994 votes (51.3%) after the second count, with Mr Palmer on 108,195 votes (48.7%).

The turnout was 36.4%.

Mr Johnson, who lives near St Neots and also serves on Huntingdonshire District Council, said: "I'm at heart, and always will be, an NHS doctor.

"I wanted to make a difference, I wanted to make a change.

"The only way I felt I could do that in local politics was adopting the three Cs - compassion, co-operation and building a community."

He added: "I'm going to enjoy the next four years because I see a great vision for a greater Cambridgeshire."

Mr Palmer said he wished Mr Johnson "the very, very best in what is a wonderful role".

He said he was proud of his achievements while mayor, including the delivery of major projects across Cambridgeshire and in particular the delivery of Peterborough University.

"I've met people I'd never expect a milkman to meet and I've been to places I'd never expected a humble milkman to go, but it's time now to look to something different... for me this is the end of the journey for politics," he added.

Cambridgeshire had been blue. It's just got a whole lot more colourful.

The Conservatives have lost control of both the county council and the mayoralty.

You could argue the Liberal Democrat surge that stole the Tories' majority on the council was foreseeable - they had been making gains in the south and east of the county.

But Labour's win in the mayoral race is a bolt from the blue; even new mayor Nik Johnson has expressed his "shock" at the result.

What's likely to change? The mayor has to work with local council leaders on a combined authority; the majority of them remain Conservative, even if the county council changes leadership.

So consensus-building - or an attempt at it - seems more likely than a lurch to a radically different platform.

Though Mr Johnson has said he'll stop work on the Cambridge Autonomous Metro and the £100,000 homes scheme championed by his predecessor.

The Liberal Democrat candidate Aidan Van de Weyer was in third place with 26.7% of the first-preference votes, and was knocked out of the contest. No other candidates were standing.

Only the top two candidates go through to the second round under the supplementary vote system.

Mayors 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.

Second-choice votes will therefore only be used if they are for the candidates who came first and second in the first-choice vote.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was one of six areas that first held elections for combined authority mayors in 2017.

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