Local elections 2024: Labour's Oliver Coppard talks priorities after resounding win over Conservatives

The Mayor of South Yorkshire has discussed his next priorities after being re-elected.

It was announced on Saturday (4 May) that Mayor Oliver Coppard of The Labour Party has secured a second term as head of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA).

His second term will come with additional responsibility as the functions of the region’s Police and Crime Commissioner are transferred to the authority.

Labour secured 138,611 votes, equating to a share of around 51 percent.

Conservative candidate Nick Allen came in second, with 44,945 votes.

It is currently unclear whether any party’s vote share has increased since the 2022 election, due to a change in the electoral system.

Following the announcement, Mayor Coppard discussed his immediate priorities with the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

What is first on your agenda now that you’ve been re-elected?

“Bringing in the Police and Crime Commissioner job is an important part of the role now, so we’ll be making sure that we’re meeting with the Chief Constable, and that we’re absolutely dealing with the priorities of that role.

“Most importantly it’s about making sure that we’re putting people at the heart of everything we do, so I will be out and about across South Yorkshire, prioritising the things that people have talked to me about over the last six weeks of this campaign, but frankly, over the past two years.

Do you have any plans to adjust the priorities of South Yorkshire Police?

“Some of the things I want to do are focus on knife crime and establish a community confidence board.

“Crime is a real problem across this country and that is because the government have not invested in solving those problems.

“In South Yorkshire we’re seeing a huge increase in things like shoplifting and knife crime, and those problems are right across the country.

“We still don’t have as many police officers as we did in 2010, so we absolutely need to focus on those problems that are affecting our communities.

“We’ll bring in the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner over time to do the job day to day, but the buck will always stop with me.”

How do you think this year’s general election could unfold, based on the results we’ve seen nationally this week?

“I’m always a little bit wary of trying to look at local or regional election results and say what it means for a general election, but what’s clear from the results across the country is that Labour has done well and the Tories have done absolutely terribly.

“We’ve had teams across South Yorkshire looking at the results and I was in Doncaster this morning looking at where our votes are coming from, and in places like Finningley where you would expect to see really strong support for the Conservatives we are seeing the votes for them fall through the floor.

“I’m confident about what that means for Labour at the general election whenever that might be, but we’re never complacent and we’ve still got to work going forward in order to make sure that we’re delivering for our community.”