{"id":42790,"date":"2025-05-02T11:29:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T10:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/?p=42790"},"modified":"2025-11-13T18:06:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T18:06:37","slug":"helen-godwin-wins-2025-west-of-england-mayor-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/2025\/05\/02\/helen-godwin-wins-2025-west-of-england-mayor-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen Godwin wins 2025 West of England mayor election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Election-win.mp4\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The moment Helen Godwin was confirmed as the Mayor of West of England<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Labour have narrowly won the West of England Mayoral seat, with 25% of the votes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the race was tight towards the end, with the Reform Party achieving 22.1% of the votes and the Green Party winning 20%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Official figures released showed that nearly 685,000 people came out to vote in the West of England which roughly equates to 30% voter turn out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is down from the 2021 West of England Combined Authority (WECA) elections where the voter turnout was around 36.1%<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The winner of the election, Helen Godwin, has promised to try and improve local infrastructure, particularly for young people in order to show other parts of the country &#8220;the absolute potential we&#8217;ve got here&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first female West of England Mayor promised to work hard for her local area, promising that &#8220;her door will be open to everyone&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Acceptance-speech.mp4\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Acceptance speech from West of England&#8217;s new mayor, Helen Godwin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I really want to get going, we want to get this right,&#8221; said Ms Godwin at the results. &#8220;It gives us work to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hall erupted when the results were announced, with Labour supporters such as MP Damien Egan came out in their droves to support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The noise meant that the results had to be read out twice. Ms Godwin&#8217;s children were also watching the result and could be seen cheering on the newly elected mayor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1760\" height=\"990\" src=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/helen-godwin-still.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42792\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.75;object-fit:cover;width:1037px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/helen-godwin-still.jpg 1760w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/helen-godwin-still-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/helen-godwin-still-700x394.jpg 700w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/helen-godwin-still-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/helen-godwin-still-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/helen-godwin-still-747x420.jpg 747w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/helen-godwin-still-640x360.jpg 640w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/helen-godwin-still-681x383.jpg 681w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1760px) 100vw, 1760px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Helen Godwin celebrating with her campaigners following her victory \/\/ credit: Mae Davage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ms Godwin succeeds Dan Norris as Mayor of the West of England after he was elected in 2021. More recently, he was arrested for alleged crimes against children and sexual assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reform UK were the runners up to the WECA Mayor elections, missing out on a margin of 2.9% of the voters. It was an incredibly successful night for Reform who were elected in Greater Lincolnshire: the highest level of public office they have held to date. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The candidate for WECA, Arron Banks, was not thrown off by his loss this evening, suggesting that Reform will come back better next time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Reform-speech-of-thanks.mp4\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Concession speech from Reform UK candidate Arron Banks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This was our least likely place to win and we came up 6,000 votes short,&#8221; Banks told the media at the announcement. &#8220;We have seen Reform victory after Reform victory.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was tension in Runcorn to confirm Reform win over Labour by only 6 votes, a number that needed to be reverified due to the close margins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also managed to leave the election with his sense of humour and friendly rivalry with Green Candidate Mary Page intact, saying &#8220;Oh and we beat the Greens&#8221;, before leaving the stage with a smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" src=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42800\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.75;object-fit:cover;width:1039px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-533x400.jpg 533w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-560x420.jpg 560w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-80x60.jpg 80w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-100x75.jpg 100w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-180x135.jpg 180w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-238x178.jpg 238w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4931-681x511.jpg 681w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ballot&#8217;s being counted in the early hours of the morning \/\/ credit: Katie Bradbeer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Keir Starmer has acknowledged Reform&#8217;s success in these local elections, and has promised to move things further and faster in future to ensure a stronger success for Labour in future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mary Page was positive despite not achieving the win she had imagined, setting her sights on the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;In 2027, South Gloucestershire and Bath, they both have elections and in 2028 Bristol has as well. So Labour and Reform, we are not going anywhere.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Labour have narrowly won the West of England Mayoral seat, with 25% of the votes. But the race was tight towards the end, with the Reform Party achieving 22.1% of the votes and the Green Party winning 20%. Official figures released showed that nearly 685,000 people came out to vote in the West of England [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":42796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42790"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42815,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42790\/revisions\/42815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwejournalism.net\/bowernews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}