Labour’s Andy Abrahams has comfortably won Mansfield’s mayoral election and will continue in the role as the district’s executive mayor for another four years.
The politician, who narrowly secured the role by two votes in 2019, increased his majority by thousands of votes by staving off challenges from the Mansfield Independents and the Conservatives.
It means former teacher Mr Abrahams will continue to run Mansfield District Council regardless of the outcome of the district-wide full council election.
Counts are ongoing at Mansfield’s Civic Centre throughout Friday (May 5) to elect 36 councillors across 36 wards in the district.
The Labour mayor will now control decision-making at the authority until 2027 and will hope to be joined by a majority Labour administration when counting ends at about 5pm.
Speaking after his election victory, Mr Abrahams said: “I promise my team will be committed to Mansfield and all its residents.
“I know there are still very challenging times ahead out there, particularly the cost of living crisis … and the ability to protect our council services for the residents of Mansfield district.”
In total, Mr Abrahams won 9,987 votes, with Cllr Andre Camilleri, of the Conservatives, getting 5,832 votes in second.
Mick Barton, of the Mansfield Independents, won 4,992, with independent Julie Tasker in fourth with 936 votes.
Karen Seymour, of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, finished in fifth with 420 votes.
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Cllr Camilleri was hoping to capitalise on a growing base of new Conservative voters in the district spreading as far back as MP Ben Bradley’s first General Election victory in 2017.
However, the Tory candidate, who is also the Conservative county councillor for Mansfield South, finished in second place. This was up from fourth place in 2019.
Had he secured victory, it would have been the first time in the council’s 50-year history that it was controlled by a Conservative politician.
Speaking after the result, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I’m a little disappointed, obviously I wanted to win but I’m very pleased we came second because we’ve gone from fourth place to second, which is an achievement.
“I think we’ll pick up a few council candidates this afternoon but the national picture is really bad for us.
“Hopefully, we can buck the trend and then we’ll keep to our promises.
“Labour promise so much but deliver so little and we want to make sure they deliver more.
“They need us to be in opposition to it.”
Former deputy mayor and Mansfield Independents hopeful Mick Barton finished in third place during a poll which mirrored the 2021 county council elections.
The Mansfield Independents – which held the mayoral position from its inception in 2003 until 2019 – saw its mayoral vote share collapse from 7,928 in 2019 to 4,992 this year.
This followed the group’s vote share also collapsing in the 2021 county council poll to return no seats at County Hall.
Speaking after the result, Mr Barton told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We move on now because we’ve got the counts for the district councillors and I’m the leader of our group, so we’ve got to get behind our candidates and hopefully get them elected.
“The mayoral vote has dropped off but I think one of the reasons is a lot of promises by the other groups to get rid of the mayor.
“[My priority] will be to hold the mayor to account and try to get him to a lot of the manifesto pledges I made and try to get some of them in.
“We want to serve the residents, that’s what we’re all about and there’s no politics.”
Turnout for the mayoral election was 27.68 per cent, which was a drop on the 29.76 per cent turnout from 2019.
Below is the mayoral election result in full:
Andy Abrahams – Labour (9,987)
Mick Barton – Mansfield Independents (4,992)
Andre Camilleri – Conservatives (5,832)
Karen Seymour – Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (420)
Julie Tasker-Birks-Love – Independent (536).
