Combined Authority (Sheffield City) Mayoral Election

Mayoral Election
This page attempts to collect details of the Sheffield mayoral election, Thursday 3rd May 2018 (same day as BMBC elections). This was a new election, to elect a Sheffield City Mayor as part of a scheme to devolve a degree of power and funding from Westminster to the regions, which in this case would be the Sheffield City Region. Some of the devolution matters are lower down the page, with the results of community polls in the Barnsley and Doncaster boroughs on devolution regions.

The 'Sheffield City Combined Authority' brings nine local authority areas together. These are the four SY councils in the 'Combined Authority': Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield, and five district councils outside the 'Combined Authority': Bassetlaw, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales and North East Derbyshire. They are not all in Yorkshire.

Voting System
This election employs the 'Supplementary Voting System', where there are first and second choices of candidates. If a first-choice candidate exceeds 50% of the vote, then that candidate wins outright. If less than 50%, then the two candidates with the most first-choice votes go into a second round of counting, with the other candidates eliminated. The second-choice votes from eliminated candidates are added to the first-choice votes for that candidate. The candidate with the largest combined vote (both the first and second-choice votes added together) wins the game. Simples! Champagne all round.

Mayoral Candidates
A last-minute ruling by Labour's National Executive (in March) banned Labour MPs from holding a second position in public life when serving as a current MP, a ban that might affect MP Dan Jarvis's attempt at the mayoral election. However, according to the Guardian, an outcry followed to the tune that the ruling was not democratic (a thought might might never apply to any other party). It had been perceived as a tactic to remove a popular MP not been in perfect alignment with the current leadership. Otherwise, some strings might have been pulled by Sheffield City Council, as Jarvis did not support their Sheffield City Region bid for devolution (see below) but preferred the Wider Yorkshire Region.

Then, as Dan went ahead with the mayoral election, the ban was miraculously lifted. The Rotherham Advertiser tells us that it was lifted when the National Executive changed their collective mind on 3rd April 2018, on election day. Was it a matter of calling his bluff (or theirs)? Jarvis had planned to stay on as MP if elected as mayor but not to take the mayoral salary, arguing that the mayoralty had very few powers anyway and was a transitional post until 2020. Well done to Dan Jarvis MP for his overwhelming success, and for standing his ground.

Perhaps of more local interest, the Liberal Democrat candidate Hannah Ruth Kitching had contested both this and the BMBC Penistone West election and gained a very respectable third place overall in the mayoral ballot, from a standing start. Not bad for a newcomer.

Total number of second preference votes cast for the remaining candidates:
Dan Jarvis (Labour) 21,519 - Total 144,154
Ian Geoffrey Walker (Conservative) 12,881 - Total 50,619

Total number of valid 'First Preference' votes for the Barnsley Borough - 44,693
Total rejected ballot papers for the Barnsley Borough - 686

Sources:

• 'Statement of Persons Nominated' (From BMBC - pdf)
• 'Statement of Persons Nominated' (From Sheffield Council - pdf).
• Sheffield City Council - Mayoral Election Results

Devolution Community Poll
There is an aspiration among many to form a 'Wider Yorkshire' combined authority, rather than for our borough to be part of the Sheffield City Region. In November 2017, a full BMBC meeting took place in 2017 to consider a report of the Executive Director Core Services, seeking approval to hold a ‘Community Poll’ to seek the views of the Barnsley Electorate and about the next stages in the Devolution proposal (Agenda - pdf). This was approved and a Community Poll was set in motion, with the option to reply by post of via the BMBC website, the cut-off date being 20th December 2017. Doncaster Council held their own poll at the same time on the same matter.

BMBC made known that it supported the 'Wider Yorkshire' option, although there was a common complaint on social media that the public had been given very little useful information on which to base their responses. The public was demanding more solid information, but which never materialised. The Barnsley bubble went deaf.

Barnsley Council leader, Sir Steve Houghton (backing 'One Yorkshire'), said: "It's not legally binding, but when the people express a view, I think it is incumbent on all of us to listen to that." (also) "I'm hoping we get a Yorkshire outcome, clearly. But if we do not and the public wish to go down the city region route we will do that and make it a success."

The poll considered two regional devolution models:

• 'Wider Yorkshire Region'
  A partnership of around 15 councils centred on Leeds, to make Yorkshire more powerful within Government. It is a large model comparable with such as the Greater Manchester City Region or the West Midlands. The Wider Yorkshire region has 5.3 million residents living and working in a geographical area seven times larger than Greater London, with an economy worth £110 billion per year. Although the precise amount has to be confirmed, this proposal is looking to unlock £3 billion over the next 30 years to spend in the region. This deal could be in place by 2020.
• 'Sheffield City Region'
  A partnership of nine local authority areas of which four, Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster, already exist as a Combined Authority and are full members. This option would offer us £1.3 billion to spend over the next 30 years on jobs and businesses, as well as new powers and funding to improve infrastructure, transport, skills, housing and other drivers of business growth. The Government was looking to make progress with Sheffield City Region devolution. HMG had already accepted this model.

The poll resulted in overwhelming support for the 'Wider Yorkshire' region. Unfortunately, HM Government had already agreed the Sheffield City Region as their model of choice. Strenuous efforts by leading characters were continuing into 2018 to urge a Government re-think. The persuasion is on-going and has been brought to Parliament.

In support of the Wider Yorkshire Region, Dan Jarvis (MP for Barnsley Central) said in Parliament: "The economic case for a wider Yorkshire devolved settlement is compelling, so much so that in Yorkshire it is supported by the CBI, the Institute of Directors, the Federation of Small Businesses, the TUC and many of the Chancellor’s own colleagues in local government." (Hansard, 28th November 2017 and Hansard, 9th January 2018)

Sources:

• BBC SY page
• 'About the Mayoral Election' - Sheffield City Region
• Yorkshire Devolution Community Poll - (BMBC - pdf)
• Local Gov't and Combined Authority Mayoral Elections (BMBC)
• 'Mayoral Election Sheffield City Region' - Mailshot Leaflet

The Results in Brief
The results of the Barnsley Borough poll were in the ratio of 17:3, in favour of the 'Wider Yorkshire' region.
The average result for both polls was close to 85% in favour of Wider Yorkshire.

BMBC
Number of eligible voters - 179,618
Total number of valid votes to be counted - 40,079
Votes cast by post - 32,968
Votes cast online - 7,312
Number of votes found to be invalid - 201

Doncaster
Number of eligible voters - 225,805
Turnout - 20.1%
Total number of valid votes to be counted - 45,236
Votes cast by post - 36,666
Votes cast online - 8,804
Number of votes found to be invalid - 234

Full Details of the BMBC Poll

Sources
BMBC Devolution and
Doncaster Devolution.
See also the Yorkshire Post article on 'Why devolution to the North can’t be delayed any longer.'