Labour has won the Liverpool metro mayor’s contest with ease.
Steve Rotheram, 55, won well over half of the vote for the new combined authority area in which 1.5 million people live.
The former councillor and ex-parliamentary aide to Jeremy Corbyn won 59.5 per cent of the vote, pushing the Tories into a distant second place. Tony Caldeira won 20 per cent of support. Teh Lib Dems were third on just 6.8 per cent.
Rotheram told the Liverpool Echo he felt “a bit shattered but relieved”.
The former bricklayer performed particularly strongly in Liverpool city centre where there is a staunch Labour vote.
“We have got a very strong mandate and our manifesto will be implemented in the first 100 days – that is the best platform to demonstrate that Labour in power can be trusted”, Rotheram said later in a BBC interview.
Turnout in the vote was just 26.1 per cent. Now Rotheram is expected to trigger a fresh selections battle by resigning his Liverpool Walton parliamentary seat, before the general election on June 8, although he has not confirmed his intentions.
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