Conservative candidate John Campion survived a big swing to Labour to secure a third consecutive term as West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner.

Mr Campion returned a thumping majority of more than 100,000 at the last election in 2021, but Labour’s Richard Overton recorded sizeable gains this time around to cut that deficit by nearly 90,000 to 10,313.

After the result was announced by Telford & Wrekin Council returning officer David Sidaway at around 4pm, he said he had been given a “huge responsibility” to repay the trust of voters after winning 34% of the vote share, and paid tribute to his campaign team.

“I’m really humbled to have the support of communities across West Mercia, on a difficult day nationally for the Conservatives, but still winning here in West Mercia,” he said.

“We’ve seen across the country as results have started to come across a huge swing against the Conservatives and we’ve seen that here as well.

“But absolutely I’d like to give my local campaign and my supporters across West Mercia who are working hard to articulate a positive vision of what can happen and what I will do, and whilst there are national politics at play that local positive vision also plays a role.

Whitchurch Herald: Vote counters during the election.Vote counters during the election.

“I’m really proud to have worked for those communities over the past 8 years and my commitment is that I will work hard to pay that trust back, that continued trust in me.

“I think the very centre of that is ensuring we get the benefit of that investment that we made, with those additional police officers delivering in our communities.”

Earlier in the day, a regional result announced for Telford and Wrekin showed a narrowing of the enormous majority which Mr Campion won during the previous election in 2001, an early indicator that the result could be closer than expected.

Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Murray finished third with just under 34,000 votes – and her campaign said local results in Shropshire showed that the Conservative vote was “collapsing”.

Whitchurch Herald: John CampionJohn Campion

“If this result was replicated at a local or general election, and given its a good barometer of national support there’s no reason it won’t be, this would mean electoral annihilation for the Conservatives – and it would mean some incredible close results in previously safe seats in the General Election,” said Liberal Democrat spokesperson Alex Wagner.

“The raw numbers of people turning away from Tories is astonishing. I think these elections have a low turnout, the fact that there isn’t a huge high profile campaign means that you do see what people really think of the major parties.

“John Campion got a lot of votes at the last election and he hasn’t been low profile, and yet clearly people are looking at his record and haven’t personally felt particularly inspired to go and offer their support again.”

Green candidate Julian Dean recorded 22,021 votes to finish narrowly ahead of English Democrat candidate John Curteis, who recorded a better than expected 21,645 votes across the region.