Claire Ward, the Labour candidate and Pharmacists’ Defence Association’s director of public affairs, has been elected the first mayor of the East Midlands, beating the Conservative Ben Bradley by more than 50,000 votes.

The new, directly elected, regional mayor role encompasses Nottinghamshire, Nottingham, Derbyshire, and Derby. Ward, who was Labour MP for Watford from 1997 until 2010, said she was “humbled” to have been elected.

Ms Ward received 181,040 votes, compared with 129,332 for Bradley. The Green Party came third with 50,666 votes, just ahead of Reform UK. Turnout for the vote was 27.6 per cent.

Ward has extensive knowledge of the community pharmacy sector. From June 2011 until its closure in March 2015, she was executive director of the Independent Pharmacy Federation. From April 2015 until it closed down in 2017 she was the chair of Pharmacy Voice, an association of trade bodies representing community pharmacy contractors.

Among other roles she has also been a non-executive director of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since May 2013 and was appointed chair in October 2021.