Salford City mayoral election 2024 results in full and who won

Salford's mayor has stormed to success, securing another four years in power of the council.

Paul Dennett won 61.5 pc of votes, beating Conservative councillor Jillian Collinson and four other candidates. This will be Paul’s third term in office as city mayor; he leads the council and has overall responsibility for the delivery of all council services.

The Labour mayor - who was first elected in 2016 - took to the stage, after his victory was announced and said holding the position was the “most rewarding and humbling experience” of his life.

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He told his supporters: “I’ve always believed in the importance of local government, the work of elected representatives and also local government workers."

In his speech after the declaration he added: “The Tories have been roundly rejected by the people in this country, losing nearly 500 council seats across 107 councils in these elections. Both locally and nationally it is clear that the Tories have fundamentally lost their way and it is clearly now time for a general election and for this Government to step aside and make way for a Labour government.”

He later told the M.E.N: “There are a number of manifesto commitments within our four year manifesto. Building 600 council houses, making Salford a child friendly city and delivering a rugby strategy for the city Salford.

“One of our big pledges is around social care. There isn’t parity at the moment between care workers and those that work within our NHS both in pay and training and we need to take back control. What I see happening in social care at the moment is just heartbreaking.

“We need to take back control of social care and give local government a more active role in that space.”

This year the mayoral election used the first past-the-post-voting system where the electorate chooses one candidate from the four standing.

The Tories came second, securing 21.9pc of votes, followed by the Green Party candidate David Jones who came third with 11.2.pc and then Sally-Ann Griffiths for the TUSC came fourth with 5.4pc of votes. The total number of votes cast was 49,987 and the turnout percentage was 25.89pc.

Returning Officer Tom Stannard said: “The three elections in Salford this year were an important opportunity for voters to choose who makes decisions that affect them, in the places where they live. In addition to electing a Salford City Mayor, they voted for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority Mayor and local councillors.

“Thank you to all those people who voted and had their say on who they wanted to represent them. And also a big thank you goes to all the people who worked tirelessly through the night and over the weekend to ensure the verification and count went smoothly to elect new councillors and a Salford City Mayor for our great city. It is greatly appreciated.”

Speaking ahead of the results being announced Conservative candidate Jillian Collinson said if she were to win she would invest in children’s services and ‘raise the profile’ of the city mayor.

She added: “Salford always has been Labour and despite work we have put in I can’t see that changing any time soon but we’d love to be able to turn things around. I feel that Labour have wasted a huge amount of money on what I regard as their vanity projects. I've asked maybe 150 people in the last few weeks if they know who the city mayor is and not one of them knew who he is.

“If I were to win I would be raising the profile of what the city mayor is there to do. As a councillor I was the official spokesperson for children’s services and any money we have in the council I would be investing in children’s services because today’s children are tomorrow’s future and they deserve the very best start in life and I don’t think that Labour addresses that.”

Before the results were announced Green Party candidate David Jones said that if he were to win the issues he would focus on would be the development of the Green Belt which the party is opposed to and the ‘state of the roads’.

David added the Green Party would also look to abolish the office of the Salford City Mayor. He said: “Since the advent of the Greater Manchester Metro Mayor there is a tier of bureaucracy we don’t need anymore and can’t afford. We are absolutely opposed to the development of the Green Belt. There’s plenty of Brownfield sites in Salford that can be utilised for housing, especially social housing.

“The second thing is the state of the roads. I have a twin brother who lives in Portsmouth and when he comes to visit he always says ‘you know you’re back in Salford because of the state of the roads’. We got a pile of money in the budget last year to fix potholes in Greater Manchester but nothing has been done about it. It’s not just embarrassing, it's dangerous.

“We want to abolish the office of the Salford City Mayor because since the advent of the Greater Manchester Metro Mayor there is a tier of bureaucracy we don’t need anymore and can’t afford. We’ve seen it in Stock-on-Trent and Liverpool last year; they've all abolished their city mayors now. If you look at how much the mayor’s office costs, that’s a six figure sum every year.”

Sally Griffiths for the TUSC, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) meanwhile said the issues she would focus on our ‘workers, families and youth’. She said there have been constant cuts and 'no signs of it abating’.

She added: “Everyone has just been accepting it and applying it in the best way that they feel they can but at some point there’s going to be a push back from communities and people living in Salford saying ‘enough’s enough’".

Tomorrow (Sunday, May 5) the votes for the local election will be counted and the councillor results announced from 5pm.