Olympic boxing gold medallist Luke Campbell has been elected the first mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, securing a decisive win for Reform UK in one of the country’s most closely watched mayoral contests.
Campbell received 48,491 votes, comfortably ahead of his nearest rival, Liberal Democrat Mike Ross, who polled 37,510. Conservative Anne Handley came third with 21,393, followed by Labour’s Margaret Pinder on 18,568. The Green Party’s Kerry Harrison received 5,049 votes, while Rowan Halstead of the Yorkshire Party took 4,372.
The result is part of a wider national surge for Reform UK, which has made sweeping gains across England in this year’s local elections. The party has taken control of seven county councils, including Lincolnshire, Staffordshire and Durham, and secured its first parliamentary by-election win in Runcorn and Helsby – a dramatic victory over Labour in a seat where they previously held a 14,000-strong majority.
Campbell’s win in Hull and East Yorkshire follows the election of former Conservative MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns as mayor of Greater Lincolnshire for Reform UK, where she beat her old party by nearly 40,000 votes.
In his victory speech, Campbell said: “ The people of Hull and East Yorkshire have spoken and now it’s time to deliver. I’ll be hitting the ground running on Tuesday – meetings are already in process to get started. I’ve always said all the way through my career that actions speak louder than my words, and you’ll see that in me.”
Party leader Nigel Farage, speaking from Durham earlier where Reform also gained control of the county council, described the results as “the beginning of the end of the Conservative Party”.
Nationally, Reform UK has gained more than 470 councillors, with both Labour and the Conservatives suffering significant losses. Campbell now takes on a key leadership role, overseeing transport, housing, skills and economic investment across the region as part of the new Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority.