Richard Parker elected as Mayor of the West Midlands

Richard Parker has been elected as Mayor of the West Midlands.

The Labour Party candidate was declared winner of the Mayoral election following the count at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham this evening (Saturday 4 May).

Mr Parker, who runs his own small business and is a qualified public finance accountant, will serve as Mayor for the next four years and as chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and its cabinet of the seven metropolitan West Midlands council leaders.

Following the declaration, Mr Parker said: “What a privilege it is to lead the West Midlands Combined Authority.

“I’m looking forward to getting to work, delivering my policies and my pledges and being a voice for the West Midlands nationally and internationally.

“This is the honour of my lifetime and I won’t let you down.”

Mr Parker is originally from Bristol and his parents were a dock worker and school secretary. He left school at 16 and got a job at the local port authority. However, he later studied for a degree in economics before becoming a public finance accountant and joining the professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 1989.

He runs his own small business in the West Midlands and works with small, medium and social enterprises on green investment, housing initiatives and on the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Mr Parker secured victory over Conservative candidate and incumbent Mayor Andy Street by 1,508 votes. Mr Street was voted the West Midlands' first mayor in 2017 and had served two terms.

WMCA is made up of 18 local councils. Its Chief Executive is Laura Shoaf.

Speaking after the vote, Mr Street is reported as saying: "I love the job but also I genuinely thought that the mayoralty [and] the combined authority were doing good things for the region and the region was coming stronger through it. 

"It was my privilege to lead this region, an honour, you might say. I do feel gutted that that is not to continue."