The 2021 Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner by-election was a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

for the position of police and crime commissioner in the

Wiltshire Police Wiltshire Police, formerly known as Wiltshire Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Wiltshire (including the Borough of Swindon) in South West England. The force serves 722,000 people over an area ...

area of the United Kingdom, held on 19 August 2021. It was triggered after Jonathon Seed, the successful candidate in the 2021 Wiltshire police and crime commissioner election (held in May 2021, postponed from May 2020), did not deliver his acceptance of office by 7 July. This followed Seed announcing his withdrawal from the election on 9 May, in the interval between the vote and the count, after

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since conti ...

discovered that Seed had been convicted in 1993 of a 1992 drink driving offence. It was later discovered by ITV News that Seed had a second offence of failure to stop. These matters disqualified Seed from the role of Police and Crime Commissioner, as guidance published by the Electoral Commission says PCC candidates cannot seek election if they have been convicted of an offence punishable with a prison sentence, including spent convictions and those where a prison sentence was not given. The by-election had to be held with 35 working days of the vacancy by virtue of Section 51 of the

Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (c. 13) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It transfers the control of police forces from police authorities to elected Police and Crime Commissioners. The first police commis ...

, thus the date was set for 19 August.

Candidates

On 23 July 2021, Wiltshire Council published the statement of persons nominated, which confirmed that five people had been validly nominated to stand: * Philip Wilkinson (

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

), senior research fellow at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

. * Brian Matthew (

Liberal Democrat Several political party, political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democracy, liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties ...

), member of

Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council is a council for the unitary authority of Wiltshire (excluding the separate unitary authority of Swindon) in South West England, created in 2009. It is the successor authority to Wiltshire County Council (1889–2009) and the ...

and three-time parliamentary candidate for

North Wiltshire North Wiltshire was a local government district in Wiltshire, England, formed on 1 April 1974, by a merger of the municipal boroughs of Calne, Chippenham, and Malmesbury along with Calne and Chippenham Rural District, Cricklade and Wootton Bas ...

. * Junab Ali (

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

), member of

Swindon Borough Council Swindon Borough Council is the local authority of the Borough of Swindon in Wiltshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. As such, it is administratively separate fro ...

and Labour Party candidate in the prior May election. * Mike Rees (

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

), former Detective Inspector for

and Independent candidate in the prior May election. *

Julian Malins Julian Malins, KC (1 May 1950) is a British barrister and a Reform U.K. candidate who served as the Farringdon ward councillor of the City of London and a Governor of the Museum of London. Early life Malins was born in Rinteln, West Germany, wh ...

(

Reform UK Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded with support from Nigel Farage in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating hard Euroscepticism and a no-deal Brexit, and was briefly a significant po ...

), former Barrister and former

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

councillor.

Results

No candidate received 50% or more of the vote from first preference votes. After first preference votes were counted, Wilkinson and Rees were the two leading candidates, receiving 35.96% and 27.82% of first preference votes respectively. After second preference votes were counted, Wilkinson was declared the winner, receiving 52.02% of the vote in the second round. Turnout for the election was 16.63%.

Previous result

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner by-election, 2021 2021 elections in the United Kingdom Police and crime commissioner elections August 2021 events in the United Kingdom Police and Crime Commissioner by-election, 2021 2021 in England