New mayor wants council leaders to 'hunt as pack'

A new Conservative mayor has said he wants all the political parties in the area to "hunt as a pack" to help secure government investment.

Paul Bristow was elected as the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority mayor on Friday with 28.4% of the vote.

The Liberal Democrats took control of Cambridgeshire County Council on the same day.

Bristow has since told the BBC he will meet each elected council leader so they can work together for the "investment that Cambridgeshire deserves".

"We have got to work together. We have got to hunt as a pack for Cambridgeshire," he said.

Bristow added that if council leaders and parties fought each other instead of lobbying central government, they would fail to secure the government investment that Cambridgeshire "deserves".

Bristow, who was the MP for Peterborough between 2019 and 2024, won 60,243 votes.

He was followed by Ryan Coogan, the Reform UK candidate, with 49,647 votes.

Labour's Anna Smith came third (42,671 votes), followed by Lorna Dupre for the Liberal Democrats (41,611) and Bob Ensch for the Green Party (18,255).

Bristow said people had voted Reform UK or Liberal Democrat because they "weren't us [Conservative]" and the party had to now prove it was capable of tackling the big issues facing the country.

"I think people were looking for a mayor like in the West Midlands, like Tees Valley and Greater Manchester; a mayor that is bigger than just the party brand and that is why I always said Cambridgeshire first, party second," he said.

Bristow, who is now the leader of the combined authority, hoped its board, which consists of the leader of the district and city councils and the county council, could look at transport issues such as creating a light rail.

He has proposed the light rail system could connect Cambourne to the city before East-West Rail was built.

While campaigning to become mayor, Bristow said he wanted to see an end to "anti-car" schemes and was opposed to road pricing.

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