Turnout for police and crime commissioner election drops as count continues

Just over a fifth of possible voters went to the poll for the PCC

Turnout for the police and crime commissioner election has dropped significantly, with only just over a fifth of eligible voters putting pen to paper.

A total of 308,607 votes were cast in the vote – equivalent to a 22.5 per cent turnout – which is seeing incumbent Alison Hernandez (Conservative), Steve Lodge (Liberal Democrat) and Daniel Steel (Labour and the Co-operative Party) compete for the position of police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

The turnout in 2021 when the last PCC election was held was 494,627 or 36.1 per cent of the electorate.

Mr Lodge said the lack of local council elections in Cornwall was a likely contributing factor to the lower turnout.

“We fully expected this,” he said.

“With no local elections in Cornwall, we expected a lower turnout.”

Mr Lodge said his aim was to increase his vote share, adding that his party nationally has pledged to get rid of police and crime commissioners.

“The elections for PCCs across the country has cost £50 million, money that could be spent on front-line police officers,” he added.

Luke Pollard, the Labour MP for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, said he thought the race was between his party’s candidate and Ms Hernandez.

Labour came second in the 2021 election.

“The world has changed significantly since then, and the Labour Party has changed significantly too, so we’re hopeful about the outcome,” he said.

“We’ve secured the PCC win in Avon and Somerset, with Clare Moody becoming the first Labour candidate to secure the position, and that’s down to the popularity of the party but also the unpopularity of the Conservatives.”

The count is ongoing across the region, including at the Plymouth Life Centre, Teignbridge and Mid Devon.

Each region is doing an individual count, with the total figure being collated in Plymouth.

Results from Torridge and Mid Devon show that Ms Hernandez has won in those two areas, with 5,110 votes in the former and 5,946 in the latter.

The PCC is responsible for holding the police force and its chief constable to account, decides how the area is policed and sets the budget.