Labour’s Joe Anderson has been named Liverpool Mayor after winning the city’s first ever directly-elected mayoral vote, gaining 58,448 (57.7%) of the votes cast for the 12 candidates.
Mr Anderson, formerly Liverpool’s Council Leader, now takes office as mayor, with Independent Liam Fogarty finishing in second place on 8,292 votes, and Richard Kemp of the Lib Dems third with 6,238.
A colourful and eventful campaign came to a head at the Wavertree Tennis Centre count, where it emerged that a large majority of Liverpool’s voters did not engage with the contest as the confirmed turnout for the mayor election was just 31.7%.
Mayor Anderson told JMU Journalism: “I think it’s a great result, I’m delighted. It’s a huge sign of confidence in the Labour Party in Liverpool and hopefully confidence in me to deliver the promises we’ve made.”
Runner-up Liam Fogarty told JMU Journalism: “I’m very humbled because a lot of volunteers, many of whom have never done politics before, came out to support me. I believe there is great hope for Liverpool. Congratulations to Joe and I wish him good luck.”
Votes cast 101,301 (31.7% turnout)
1 Joe Anderson (Labour) 58,448 votes
2 Liam Fogarty (Independent) 8,292
3 Richard Kemp (Lib Dem) 6,238
4 John Coyne (Green Party) 5,175
5 Tony Mulhearn (TUSC) 4,792
6 Steve Radford (Liberal) 4,442
7 Tony Caldeira (Conservative) 4,425
8 Adam Heatherington (UKIP) 2,352
9 Paul Rimmer (Eng Democrats) 1,400
10 Jeff Berman (Independent) 1,362
11 Mike Whitby (BNP) 1,015
12 Peter Quiggins (National Front) 566
After the result had been announced, the National Front supporters opened a banner and protested during and after Joe Anderson’s victory speech before being escorted out by police.
Tony Caldeira, who finished seventh, told JMU Journalism: “It’s disappointing for the city that the election result was marred by such an unfortunate protest. We’ve fought a very strong, positive campaign to try to improve the reputation of the city and we believe that our city has got a great future. Congratulations to Mayor Anderson and I think Liverpool is the big winner tonight.”
Jeff Berman, who ran as an independent candidate in this campaign and came tenth, told JMU Journalism: “It certainly doesn’t end today. Over the next four years I will be campaigning, still carrying on the work I’ve done and letting people know how Liverpool can be improved.”
The council’s decision to by-pass a public referendum on the mayoral election made it an historic day for Liverpool, as many other cities across the country – apart from London – decided whether or not to have a directly-elected mayor. Manchester was among the cities to vote ‘no’.
The ward area Liverpool City Council votes will be handled in a separate count which will take place on Friday afternoon.