The Labour leader of Cambridge City Council said he is "tired but delighted" as the final local election results were announced, confirming the party's majority of the authority. Councillor Mike Davey was re-elected to his seat and he said it had been a "good day" with the Labour group maintaining its number of councillors.
He said: “It has been a long few weeks, the last 48 hours have been quite exhausting, but I am absolutely over the moon. We have done really well in Cambridge. We have managed to keep and maintain our number of seats. We are still running the council, I have not done the analysis yet, but we appear to have increased our vote, it just feels like a good day.
“The only disappointment is Anna Smith not winning the PCC, but the bonus of that is that she will carry on representing us at the Combined Authority as the Deputy Mayor. So, as I say, a very good day and some results in particular we are delighted with because we were pushed hard.
Read more: Cambridge local election results 2024
Read more: Live local election 2024 results as votes are counted in Cambridge
“I think the big benefit of winning so well this time is we have got a handsome majority and we have got two years, there are no elections next year, so we are looking to build on what we have been doing from the last 12 months and before that and make sure we are able to deliver again what people of Cambridge appear to want, which is a good Labour government with proper principles which we will take forward on behalf of people in this city.”
The only loss of the day was seen by the Liberal Democrat group, who lost their Newnham seat to the Green Party. The newly elected Green Party candidate, Councillor Hugh Clough, won the seat with 925 votes, with the Liberal Democrat candidate, Lucy Nethsingha coming third behind the Labour candidate, with just 306 votes.
Councillor Tim Bick, leader of the Liberal Democrat group at the city council, said: “I am disappointed we have one less councillor than we did beforehand, I think some very particular local circumstances in Newnham are involved in that, but I am really pleased to be going back with my two other colleagues.
“In particular my new colleague from Trumpington who is a Ukrainian immigrant who I think really proves how great Cambridge is at welcoming people from all around the world who make their home here, so that gives me great pleasure and I think it should give the whole of Cambridge great pride. The Newnham result was a disappointment, also a disappointment was the fact that we failed to overturn two relatively narrow Labour majorities in the two wards in Chesterton, but we are not going to go anywhere we are going to fight on.”
The Green Party group leader, Councillor Naomi Bennett, said she was "thrilled" to be re-elected and to be adding a new councillor to her group. Cllr Clough, the new representative for Newnham, said he was also "delighted" to be elected to the city council. He said: "I am looking forward to working for Newnham and the area I have lived in for a long time. I feel very passionate about protecting our local facilities, our schools, our shops, our walkways, and making sure it stays a nice place."
The Conservatives failed to win any more seats at this year's election. Zachary Marsh, representative of the Conservatives said: “Under no illusions it has been a tough election cycle, we have seen continued support across the board and we look forward to contesting future elections and offering people a choice in Cambridge.”
