The Pharmacists’ Defence Association’s (PDA) director of public affairs has been elected as the first-ever mayor of the East Midlands combined county authority, it announced last week (May 3).

Claire Ward received 181,040 votes as the candidate for the Labour and Co-operative Party - 51,708 more votes than her nearest rival Ben Bradley of the Conservative Party – in last week’s (May 2) local elections, according to the official results.

Read more: Former Pharmacy Voice chair Claire Ward joins PDA

As regional mayor of the East Midlands, Ward will preside over a region that includes Nottinghamshire, Nottingham, Derbyshire and Derby, the PDA said. 

She won the most votes in all but two of the region’s 17 local council areas, according to the region’s election results, while the PDA said that she secured “more than 40% of all votes cast” in total.

The trade union wished Ward “all the best” in her new role.

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Ward joined the PDA as its director of public affairs in 2017.

She was formerly chair of Pharmacy Voice, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacy Federation - which merged with the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) in 2015 - and served as a Labour MP for Watford from 1997 to 2010.

Read more: AIMp CEO Dr Leyla Hannbeck to stand as MP in next general election

It comes as the chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) – formerly known as the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp) - announced in March that she will stand as a candidate in the next UK general election.

Dr Leyla Hannbeck was selected as a prospective parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats and will stand in the constituency of Broadland and Fakenham.