2024 West Yorkshire mayoral election

The 2024 West Yorkshire mayoral election was held on 2 May 2024 to elect the mayor of West Yorkshire alongside the 2024 United Kingdom local elections.^[1] Tracy Brabin of the Labour Party won with 275,430 votes.^[2]

2024 West Yorkshire mayoral election

← 2021 2 May 2024 2028 →
Turnout	32.71% 0.4pp
First party Second party Third party   Con Grn Candidate Tracy Brabin Arnold Craven Andrew Cooper Party Labour Co-op Conservative Green Popular vote 275,430 82,757 66,648 Percentage 50.4% 15.1% 12.2% Swing 7.4pp 13.8pp 3.0pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Candidate Bob Buxton Richard Tilt Stewart Golton Party Yorkshire Independent Liberal Democrats Popular vote 47,937 46,443 27,501 Percentage 8.8% 8.5% 5.0% Swing 0.9pp New 0.1pp
Mayor before election Tracy Brabin Labour Co-op Elected Mayor Tracy Brabin Labour Co-op

Background

The Mayor of West Yorkshire is the directly elected leader of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. The mayoralty handles the £38 million-per-year investment coming from the central government for 30 years from 2021.^[3] The mayor has control over regional transport (including working toward creating a regional mass transit system), housing, land (with responsibility for creating a city region spatial plan) and adult skills.^[4][5] The role includes the responsibilities of the police and crime commissioner for West Yorkshire, similar to the Mayor of London and the Mayor of Greater Manchester.

The first election for the office was held in 2021, which Labour's Tracy Brabin won, winning with 59.8% of the vote to the 40.2% achieved by the second-placed candidate, Conservative Matthew Robinson.^[6]

Electoral system

Unlike the previous election, which used a supplementary vote system, this election was the first to use the first-past-the-post voting system to elect the mayor as a result of the changes made by the Elections Act 2022. Voters were able to vote for a single candidate, and the candidate receiving the most votes was elected mayor.^[7]

Candidates

• Tracy Brabin (Labour Party) – incumbent Mayor^[8]
• Bob Buxton (Yorkshire Party)^[9]
• Andrew Cooper (Green Party)^[10]
• Arnold Craven (Conservative)^[11]
• Stewart Golton (Liberal Democrat)^[12]
• Jonathan Tilt (Independent)^[13]

Opinion polling

The poll conducted by Censuswide was unweighted, and included 16–17 year olds.^[14]

Dates conducted	Pollster	Client	Sample size	Lab	Con	Yorks	Green	Lib Dems	Reform	Others	Lead
9–19 February 2024	Censuswide	Yasper	1,001	52%	15%	8%	10%	8%	9%	–	37
6 May 2021	2021 election		–	43.1%	29.1%	9.7%	9.2%	5.0%	2.5%	1.5%	14.0

Result

Result by district

2024 West Yorkshire mayoral election^[15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Tracy Brabin	275,430	50.4	+7.4
	Conservative	Arnold Craven	82,757	15.1	−13.8
	Green	Andrew Cooper	66,648	12.2	+3.0
	Yorkshire	Bob Buxton	47,937	8.8	−0.9
	Independent	Richard Tilt	46,443	8.5	New
	Liberal Democrats	Stewart Golton	27,501	5.0	+0.1
Majority			192,673	35.2	+21.3
Turnout			546,716	32.7	−0.4
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing	+10.6

2024 West Yorkshire mayoral election^[15]

Districts	Tracy Brabin Lab		Arnold Craven Con		Andrew Cooper Green		Bob Buxton Yorkshire		Richard Tilt Independent		Stewart Golton Lib Dems		Total valid votes
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#
Bradford	55,878	44.73%	19,206	15.38%	14,394	11.52%	9,791	7.84%	19,889	15.92%	5,758	4.61%	124,916
Calderdale	27,228	53.08%	8,641	16.85%	6,070	11.83%	4,155	8.10%	3,205	6.25%	1,995	3.89%	51,294
Kirklees	47,897	43.67%	17,690	16.13%	19,296	17.59%	7,944	7.24%	12,138	11.07%	4,713	4.30%	109,678
Leeds	107,011	54.83%	26,563	13.61%	22,097	11.32%	19,062	9.77%	7,479	3.83%	12,971	6.65%	195,183
Wakefield	37,416	57.00%	10,657	16.23%	4,791	7.30%	6,985	10.64%	3,732	5.69%	2,064	3.14%	65,645
Totals	275,430	50.38%	82,757	15.14%	66,648	12.19%	47,937	8.77%	46,443	8.49%	27,501	5.03%	546,716