Steve Smith: The tightest election race of 2025

Steve Smith is the Conservative candidate for Mayor of the West of England.

The tightest election race of 2025 – and the one to watch. That’s what the West of England Mayoral election will be. It is unique in being the only four-horse election race in the country. Labour is defending, with the Conservatives in a strong second, closely followed by the Greens in third and the Liberal Democrats still in contention in fourth place. That was the result last time.

However, things have changed since 2021, putting us in a much stronger position. The change to first past the post means that we aren’t using a voting system that in the second round forced the anti-Conservative vote to coalesce behind Labour. If you are a Green or Liberal Democrat supporter you can vote for your first choice with the confidence of knowing your first choice can win – no need to vote for your second choice. There are no local elections in Bristol next year. So, there won’t be the turnout boost of the additional activity that helped Labour last time.

Above all we have the advantage of the record of the Labour Mayor. Dan Norris has not been a Ben Houchen for the West of England. He has instead hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Spending £10,000 of public money slapping his own face over a bus. Spending £120 of public money on a cake which was fed to his dog. This is what he’s most known for.

Less well known but much more seriously he has plunged the Combined Authority into special measures for being badly run and mired in politicking. He’s presided over gimmicky stunts, whilst slashing the basics – like cutting bus routes and services across the region. Notably he’s failed to retain the £2 bus fare – unlike other Labour Mayors.

Indeed, his record is such that his own party have blocked him from standing again. Since July he’s been an MP in Westminster – whilst also being Mayor of the West of England covering Bristol, Bath and a host of towns and villages as well. Local people deserve better than a part-time Mayor and even the Labour Party have come to recognise this!

So, there is a huge appetite locally for a West of England Mayor who will focus on delivery. That’s what I will do. Stopping the stunts and the gimmicks and getting on with the job of getting the basics right.

On transport, one of the combined authorities’ main responsibilities, we’ve seen bus services withdrawn as public subsidies recede, leaving many towns and villages across the region cut off as “bus deserts”.  The combined authority has had the power for years to establish a Public Transport Executive (think Transport for London) and take control of public transport through a franchising arrangement.  For the last year, we’ve been promised that a proposal would come to the decision-making committee “soon”.  When it finally emerged in September, the proposal was to spend another year thinking about it.

We remain one of the few core city regions not to have a separate tram or light rail system.  There have been various schemes dating back to the eighties which have fallen by the wayside because local authorities couldn’t agree.  The latest version is now working its way through the tortuous treasury “Green Book” system.  The latest report was published in 2023, but sat gathering dust for a year because the Mayor couldn’t agree with the Council leaders on what to do with it.  We now face several more years and millions of pounds worth of report-writing before we stand even a chance of getting something built.

On planning, the combined authority has a duty to publish a “Joint Spatial Plan”, setting out how the region will grow and where business, infrastructure and housing will develop.   The last attempt to create such a plan was in 2021, and it ended up being shelved because (you guessed it), the Mayor couldn’t agree its content with the council leaders.  We now have each individual council making their own plans, with no regional strategy or coordination.  Labour’s new planning framework has actually increased the housing targets on our green belt and reduced them where demand is highest in our cities.

We need a Mayor working with other leaders in the Combined Authority to deliver for our region – not fighting amongst themselves. Practical delivery will mean; bus routes being protected and restored, working to keep bus fares lower, getting long-promised new train stations open, maxing out homebuilding in Bristol City Centre to ease the pressure on the region’s green spaces and working positively with the private sector to grow our region’s economy.

There’s much to do to deliver for the West of England. Frankly we have a lot of catching up to do compared to some of the success stories of other Mayors like Ben Houchen in Tees Valley. We’ve had four failed years under Labour – now we need to fulfil our potential.

We will use the next four months to set out a compelling vision for why it is only the Conservatives who can offer that for our region.

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