West Yorkshire PCC election: Mark Burns-Williamson wins

Mark Burns-Williamson Mr Burns-Williamson has pledged to fight against police budget cuts

Labour's Mark Burns-Williamson has been elected as West Yorkshire's first police and crime commissioner (PCC).

He beat Independent candidate Cedric Christie after second preference votes were counted.

Turnout in West Yorkshire was just 13.3% with more than 8,000 spoilt ballots.

Mr Burns-Williamson, who has been a member of the county's police authority for 13 years, will set priorities for the force and oversee its budget.

The West Yorkshire force serves about 2.2 million people and has a budget of £411m.

Mr Burns-Williamson said he felt humbled to have received more than 100,000 votes.

He was critical of the government over how the elections had been held which had, in his view, resulted in a low turnout

"It is now up to me and the other 40 police and crime commissioners elected today to establish themselves and legitimise this post by listening to everyone who relies on their local police force," he said.

Last year the force announced it was cutting nearly 2,000 members of staff by 2012 in a move to save £27m from the budget following government spending cuts.

Mr Burns-Williamson said he would continue to fight against cuts to police budgets in West Yorkshire and the rest of the region.

He said: "The public of West Yorkshire have declared they have no support of this irresponsible slashing of the police service."

WEST YORKSHIRE: Mark Burns-Williamson (Labour) elected

Turnout does not include spoilt ballots

Turnout 214,728 (13.3%)

Second round

Candidate

Party

Final total

%

Status

Mark Burns-Williamson

Labour

114,736

61.5

Elected

Cedric Christie

Independent

71,876

38.5

First round

Candidate

Party

1st pref

%

2nd pref

Mark Burns-Williamson

Labour

102,817

47.9

11,919

Cedric Christie

Independent

49,299

23

22,577

Geraldine Carter

Conservative

45,365

21.1

Andrew Marchington

Liberal Democrat

17,247

8

Turnout does not include spoiled ballots

More on This Story

Related Stories

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites

BBC Leeds & West Yorkshire

Weather

Leeds & West Yorkshire

15 °C 5 °C

Features

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.