Katy Bourne wins Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner vote

The Conservative politician will serve in the role for a third time, after being elected in 2012 and 2016.

Ms Bourne received 244,810 votes, while Labour's Paul Richards came second after receiving 128,259 votes.

It means that Ms Bourne will have held the role for more than a decade once her term finishes in 2024.

The newly elected commissioner said she was "delighted" to be given a third term in the role.

• FOLLOW LIVE: Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner election results

She said: "It is an ongoing challenge policing and we know that this last year has been a particular challenge with the pandemic.

"I think that police officers have been absolutely fantastic.

"So as we come out of lockdown, we are expecting an increase in crime reports coming in.

"But for me, I think it is all about extra recruitment because that is the one big thing the public has been very vocal about.

"They want that visibility because it gives them confidence."

Counting began shortly after 9.30 this morning at the Hilton Brighton Metropole.

Votes were counted in the Hilton Brighton Metropole

Protective perplex screens separated counting stations, as volunteers wore masks and made use of the hand sanitising stations dotted around the ballroom.

After the first count, Katy Bourne received 47.2 per cent of the vote - 2.8 per cent short of the amount required to be declared victorious.

With no clear winner after first preference votes, counters moved to the second preference to determine who would become the next Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner.

With the supplementary voting system, if no candidate gets over 50 per cent of the vote, the top two candidates continue to a run-off and all other candidates are eliminated.

It meant that the final count was between Conservative's Katy Bourne and Labour's Paul Richards.

After almost three hours of counting, Mrs Bourne was declared the winner shortly before 5.00 pm.

The full results:

• Katy Bourne (Conservative): 244,810
• Paul Richards (Labour): 128,259

Ahead of her reelection, Ms Bourne told The Argus that she plans to continue the recruitment drive to get more officers on the front line.

She said: "For the next three years I am going to look at continuing the recruitment drive that we have already started.

"We are now seeing more officers on the front line than we had back in 2016, which is a real positive because that is what the public want.

Katy Bourne in a live Q&A with The Argus

"We are continuing to develop the rural crome time and putting investment into that because our rural communities have been crying out for this.

"We will continue to look at business crime as our economy starts to pick up."