Labour's Danielle Stone elected as the new police and fire commissioner in Northamptonshire

Labour candidate Danielle Stone has been elected as the new Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Northamptonshire in today’s election.

Councillor Stone, who has been a councillor since 2011 and currently sits on West Northamptonshire Council, beat both Conservative candidate Martyn Emberson and Lib Dem candidate Ana Savage Gunn.

The full results were:

Martin Emberton Conservative- 39,740

Ana Savage Gunn - 27,799

Danielle - 43,684

The turnout was 21% for West Northamptonshire and 18.1% for North Northamptonshire.

The newly elected PFCC will take over from Stephen Mold, who has served the county for two terms since 2016. His departure from the service came after a recent scandal in which he referred to his preferred chief fire officer as a “b***h” during a private meeting with firefighters.

Voting in the election differed slightly this year - in previous PFCC elections a supplementary vote system was used where voters could mark down a first and second choice of candidate. This time, the ‘first past the post’ system was used giving constituents only one vote.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Service before the result was announced, Danielle Stone said: “I feel as if I’ve walked for miles and miles and miles to get here. I think within the communities, there are high expectations of candidates which I hope I’m not going to disappoint.”

Asked about her observations during the election, she said: “The biggest thing that is worrying me is that people don’t feel safe in their daily lives.

“We are not even talking about victims of serious crimes, it’s the atmosphere on the high street where something doesn’t feel right. People feel very vulnerable and they regret the loss of visible policing.

“Campaigning is something I have always done. If I don’t win now, I wlll work in the same way as a councillor and fight for my communities.”