Elections 2021: Tories win Northamptonshire police commissioner vote

Conservative Stephen Mold has retained the position of Northamptonshire's Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC).

Mr Mold won 53.2% of the first preference vote, with 102,752 votes, meaning the second preference votes did not need to be counted.

Labour's Clare Pavitt finished second with 27.5% and Ana Gunn, of the Liberal Democrats, was in third, with 15%.

The turnout for Thursday's vote was 34.8%.

Mark Hearn, for Reform UK, came in fourth, with just under 4% of the vote.

Mr Mold was first elected as Police and Crime Commissioner for Northamptonshire in 2016.

In 2018, the Home Office approved plans for the county's PCC to also take charge of overseeing the fire service.

Mr Mold increased his vote share by almost 13%, and turnout was also up from 22% in 2016.

He said he was "very humbled" by the number of people that had voted for him.

The Conservative said he had "laid some really firm foundations" in his five years in the role, but added "there is more to do - the performance in some areas is not as good as we want it to be".

He also said the reorganisation of local government in Northamptonshire represented "a real opportunity for all of us".

The system of county and district councils has been replaced by two unitary authorities - North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council.

They held their first ever elections on Thursday, with the Conservatives winning big majorities at both.

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