Salford’s voters have elected a new City Mayor

Labour’s Paul Dennett secured 28,332 votes, beating second place Councillor Robin Garrido who stood for the Conservative party and received 14,484 votes.

The mayoral election used the supplementary voting system, meaning voters had two choices.

After the first choice votes were counted Labour candidate, Paul Dennett received 24,209 votes (49.56 per cent) and Conservative candidate Councillor Robin Garrido, received 11,810 votes (24.18 per cent); meaning they moved to a second round of voting as no candidate achieved an overall majority.

UKIP candidate Owen Hammond received 8,668 (17.75 per cent) and Green Party candidate Wendy Olsen received 4,158 votes (8.51 per cent).

The UKIP and Green candidates were eliminated at this point.

All the votes that were originally cast for the two eliminated candidates were then counted again. This time the second choice candidates were counted, and any second choice votes for the remaining two candidates added to their first round total.

It was at this stage Paul Dennett gained a further 4,123 votes, bringing his total to 28,332 votes and meaning he was elected City Mayor. Councillor Robin Garrido received a further 2,674 votes, bringing his total to 14,484 votes.

In total 29.82 per cent of Salford’s electorate turned out to vote in the mayoral elections, which ran alongside the local elections.

The votes were counted at Salford’s A J Bell Stadium. The count started at 11am and the winner was announced just before 3pm.