Labour’s Nik Johnson has been elected as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor with 51.3% of the vote.
After no candidate received 50% of the vote, Dr Johnson beat the incumbent Conservative mayor James Palmer in the second round.
He admitted the win was “a bit of a surprise” as he pledged to deliver a great vision for a Cambridgeshire.
Dr Johnson received 113,994 votes (51.3%) after the second count, with Mr Palmer on 108,195 votes (48.7%).
There is a clear lesson here for the conservatives, combined authorities mayors that deliver, like Andy Street and Ben Houchen, they get reelected. Where they dont as in West of England and Cambridgeshire they get turfed out.
I suspect MCHLG and DOT will be secretly please as James Palmer did nothing but pick fights with the combined authority.
Nik Johnson has proposed to scrap the expensive elements from CAM like tunneling, however critical capacity issues in terms of constraints on stands in the city centre remain and new routes are needed to support the city regional spatial plan. Of which the Try loss of South Cambridgeshire to the Lib Dems will create an interesting dynamic.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions 