Local elections 2023: Labour's Chris Cooke ousts Andy Preston for Middlesbrough mayor

Labour's Chris Cooke pulled off a shock political win by defeating Andy Preston to become Middlesbrough's mayor.

In a tight race Mr Cooke won by just 760 votes, with 10,956 votes to Independent Mr Preston's 10,196.

He thanked the other candidates describing the process as a "whirlwind experience", adding that he was looking forward to "getting on with the job".

Independent Jon Rathmell received 3,102 votes and Conservative John Cooper finished last with 2,997.

Turnout in the race was 27.75% with 27,479 votes cast out of a total electorate of 99,034.

Mr Preston, who has been mayor since 2019, was considered the favourite heading into the race but his hopes of serving for another four years were dashed.

The ousted mayor said he would have loved to have seen through the plans he was working on for the town but he had given 100% and was looking forward to getting his life back.

"It's been an amazing four years, incredibly difficult, incredibly tough," he said after his defeat.

Voters also went to the polls to elect ward councillors across Middlesbrough, and counting will begin at 10:00 BST.

Labour also celebrated becoming the biggest party on the council in Hartlepool's elections, but remain one seat short of an overall majority, which was all down to just two votes.

They missed out in Hart ward to the Conservatives by 493 to 491.

The council is in no overall control, but talks will now take place to see if Labour can secure a deal or coalition to ensure it leads the council for the coming year, which it last did in 2019.

Counting begins in Darlington, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton later.