Conservative Matthew Barber narrowly re-elected as Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner

Conservative Matthew Barber has been re-elected as the Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).

The incumbent won 144,092 votes across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire, securing a narrow majority of 2,300 over Labour’s Tim Starkey, who finished second with 141,749.

Mr Barber promised to put more police officers on the streets and to prioritise tackling rape and sexual offences, domestic abuse, the night time economy, serious violence and abuse and exploitation.

Celebrating his victory, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “I am going to spend some time with the family who probably haven’t seen quite so much of me as they might like over recent weeks. There will certainly be a couple of beers.”

The Liberal Democrats’ Tim Bearder finished in third place out of the five candidates, securing 84,341 votes.

Next up were Ben Holden-Crowther running on the ‘More Police Officers for Thames Valley’ platform, who won 46,853 votes and Russell Fowler who finished last with 31,460.

The turnout of the election was 25 per cent, with a total of 448,495 valid votes cast out of an eligible electorate of 1,835,463.

The 2 May vote was the fourth election of the Thames Valley PCC since the role was introduced in 2012 under then-Home Secretary Theresa May.

Voters in 13 different local authority areas had their say on the next PCC, who will represent Thames Valley’s 2.34 million residents.

Mr Barber won the most votes in Bracknell Forest, Buckinghamshire, Cherwell District, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, South Oxfordshire District, Vale of White Horse District, West Berkshire, West Oxfordshire District and Wokingham.

Meanwhile, Milton Keynes, Oxford City, Reading Borough and Slough Borough went to Mr Starkey.

Mr Barber’s victory was announced at the vote count at Newbury Racecourse by Nigel Lynne, the police area returning officer for the Thames Valley Police.

Following his victory, the newly-elected PCC shook hands with his election rivals – although Mr Bearder did not attend the count.

Mr Barber admitted that it had been a close-run contest between him and Mr Starkey, praising his rival’s ‘positive campaign’ and saying it had been a ‘challenging night’ for the Conservatives in the local elections in England this week.

He said: “When you look at the national picture perhaps that is not entirely surprising. There was certainly an element of tactical voting.”

He added: “I am delighted to have got the win. It was certainly very close.”

Mr Starkey, a barrister, told the LDRS that there had been a ‘huge surge of support’ for Labour, which ‘bodes well’ for his party at the general election, expected to be held this autumn.

He said: “The PCC role has always been won by the Conservatives in Thames Valley, so we had a mountain to climb. We got almost all the way to the summit but not quite there.”

The Labour candidate said Mr Barber faced a ‘challenge to rebuild trust in police’, which has been ‘shaken by scandals to do with police misconduct’.

He added: “But also on a more day-to-day basis, people are saying they don’t see police, if they report things to the police, nothing happens.

“Thames Valley Police has a poor rate of solving crimes and communication with the public. I hope very much that he will address all of those things and I wish him well in doing so.”

PCCs are supposed to hold police forces to account, as well as setting their budget and priorities.

They are also responsible for hiring and firing the chief constable.