Mayor of Watford | |
---|---|
Style | No courtesy title or style |
Appointer | Electorate of Watford |
Term length | Four years |
Inaugural holder | Dorothy Thornhill (May 2002) |
Succession | Quadrennial |
The Mayor of Watford is the head of the borough council of Watford, Hertfordshire, England. The holder of the position is a directly elected mayor using the supplementary vote every four years. The current mayor of Watford is Peter Taylor, who was elected in May 2018 for the Liberal Democrats.
Dorothy Thornhill was the first directly elected mayor of Watford; she was elected in May 2002. Thornhill was the first female directly elected mayor in England and the Liberal Democrats' first directly elected mayor. She was re-elected in May 2006, May 2010 and May 2014.
In the 2018 election, Peter Taylor, also member of the Liberal Democrats, was elected as Mayor of Watford.
Choice | Votes | % |
---|---|---|
Elected Mayor | 7,636 | 51.7 |
Cabinet System | 7,140 | 48.3 |
Required majority | 50 | |
Total votes | 14,776 | 100.00 |
Registered voters and turnout | 60,630 [1] | 24.5 |
Source: House of Commons Library [2] |
The position was established after a referendum in 2001 and the first election was held in 2002.
Watford Mayoral Election 2 May 2002 [3] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes | |||||
Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | |||||
Liberal Democrats | Dorothy Thornhill | 10,954 | 49.4% | 2,519 | 13,473 | 71.9% | | ||
Labour | Vince Muspratt | 4,899 | 22.1% | 370 | 5,269 | 28.1% | | ||
Conservative | Gary Ling | 4,746 | 21.4% | | |||||
Green | Stephen Rackett | 851 | 3.8% | | |||||
Socialist Alliance | Paul Woodward | 390 | 1.8% | | |||||
Fat Cat | Tristram Cooke | 330 | 1.5% | | |||||
Liberal Democrats win |
Watford Mayoral Election 4 May 2006 [4] | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes | ||||
Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
Liberal Democrats | Dorothy Thornhill | 11,963 | 51.2% | | ||||
Conservative | Stephen O'Brien | 4,838 | 20.7% | | ||||
Labour | Ruth Ellis | 4,062 | 17.4% | | ||||
Green | Stephen Rackett | 2,522 | 10.8% | | ||||
Liberal Democrats hold |
Watford Mayoral Election 6 May 2010 [5] | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes | ||||
Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
Liberal Democrats | Dorothy Thornhill | 19,153 | 45.9% | 4,276 | 23,429 | 67.1% | | |
Conservative | Stephen Johnson | 10,403 | 24.9% | 1,105 | 11,508 | 32.9% | | |
Labour | Nigel Bell | 10,029 | 24.0% | | ||||
Green | Alex MacGregor-Mason | 2,173 | 5.2% | | ||||
Liberal Democrats hold |
Watford Mayoral Election 22 May 2014 [6] | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes | ||||
Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
Liberal Democrats | Dorothy Thornhill | 11,741 | 45.90% | 2,452 | 14,193 | 65.4% | | |
Labour | Jagtar Dhindsa | 6,577 | 25.71% | 927 | 7,504 | 34.6% | | |
UKIP | Philip Cox | 3,789 | 14.81% | | ||||
Conservative | Linda Topping | 3,470 | 13.57% | | ||||
Liberal Democrats hold |
Watford Mayoral Election 3 May 2018 [7] | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes | ||||
Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
Liberal Democrats | Peter Taylor | 13,274 | 48.7% | 2,657 | 15,931 | 61.6% | | |
Labour | Jagtar Dhindsa | 9,223 | 33.8% | 728 | 9,951 | 38.4% | | |
Conservative | George Jabbour | 4,787 | 17.5% | | ||||
Liberal Democrats hold |
Islington South and Finsbury is a constituency created in 1974 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Emily Thornberry of the Labour Party. Thornberry served as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2016 until 2020 and is currently Shadow International Trade Secretary.
Watford is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Conservative Party representative Dean Russell.
Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of local government services in Leeds. It has the second-largest population of any council in the United Kingdom with approximately 800,000 inhabitants living within its area; only Birmingham City Council has more. Since 1 April 2014, it has been a constituent council of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Elections for the Council in the London Borough of Croydon are held every four years to elect 70 councillors. At the last elections, which were held in May 2018, 29 Conservative councillors and 41 Labour councillors were elected, providing a Labour majority of twelve seats.
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council in South Yorkshire, England is elected every four years. The council also has a directly elected mayor since 2001.
Bedford is a unitary authority in Bedfordshire, England. Until 1 April 2009 it was a non-metropolitan district. Since 2002 it has also had a directly elected mayor.
Local government elections took place in England (only) on Thursday 4 May 2006. Polling stations were open between 7:00 and 22:00.
Hertfordshire County Council in England is elected every four years. Since the last boundary changes, that took effect for the 2001 election, 77 councillors are elected for single member districts.
Elections to Watford Borough Council were held on 2 May 2002. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control. At the same time an election for a directly elected mayor was held, which was won by the Liberal Democrat Dorothy Thornhill.
Elections to Watford Borough Council were held on 4 May 2006. One third of the council was up for election and the Liberal Democrat party kept overall control of the council. At the same time in the election for Watford's directly elected mayor the Liberal Democrat Dorothy Thornhill was re-elected.
Dorothy Thornhill, Baroness Thornhill, was the first directly elected mayor of Watford, Hertfordshire, England. She was the Liberal Democrats' first directly elected mayor, and was also the first female directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. She served as Mayor of Watford from May 2002 until May 2018. She was nominated for a life peerage in August 2015.
Watford Borough Council is the local authority for the Watford non-metropolitan district of England, the United Kingdom. Watford is located in the south-west of Hertfordshire, in the East of England region. The council is based in the Town Hall on Hempstead Road.
The Mayor of Bedford is a directly elected mayor responsible for the executive function, and ceremonial duty of Bedford Borough Council in Bedfordshire. The incumbent is Dave Hodgson of the Liberal Democrats who succeeded Frank Branston in 2009.
The 2012 United Kingdom local elections were held across England, Scotland and Wales on 3 May 2012. Elections were held in 128 English local authorities, all 32 Scottish local authorities and 21 of the 22 Welsh unitary authorities, alongside three mayoral elections including the London mayoralty and the London Assembly. Referendums were also held in 11 English cities to determine whether or not to introduce directly elected mayors.
A series of mayoral referendums were held on 3 May 2012 in England's 11 largest cities to determine whether to introduce directly elected mayors to provide political leadership, replacing their current council leaders, who are elected by the local council.
The 2013 United Kingdom local elections took place on Thursday 2 May 2013. Elections were held in 35 English councils: all 27 non-metropolitan county councils and eight unitary authorities, and in one Welsh unitary authority. Direct mayoral elections took place in Doncaster and North Tyneside. These elections last took place on the 4 June 2009 at the same time as the 2009 European Parliament Elections, except for County Durham, Northumberland and the Anglesey where elections last took place in 2008.
The 2014 United Kingdom local elections were held on 22 May 2014. Usually these elections are held on the first Thursday in May but were postponed to coincide with the 2014 European Parliament Elections. Direct elections were held for all 32 London boroughs, all 36 metropolitan boroughs, 74 district/borough councils, 19 unitary authorities and various mayoral posts in England and elections to the new councils in Northern Ireland.
The 2017 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 4 May 2017. Local elections were held across Great Britain, with elections to 35 English local authorities and all councils in Scotland and Wales.
The 2018 Watford Borough Council election took place on 3 May 2018 to elect members of Watford Borough Council in England. This was the same day as other local elections.
Peter Colin Taylor is a Liberal Democrat politician. He is the second directly elected mayor of Watford in the United Kingdom. He was elected in the 2018 election, succeeding Dorothy Thornhill. Before becoming Elected Mayor of Watford, he was a teacher and a local Oxhey ward councillor.