Mike Starkie is a British Conservative politician who was the directly elected mayor of Copeland, for the Borough of Copeland in Cumbria.[1]
He stood as an Independent, winning the 2015 election after coming first due to him beating the Labour candidate after transfer votes (the Conservatives were eliminated after coming last in the first round of votes).[2][3] In June 2020, dropping his 'Independent' stance, announcing he'd joined the Conservative Party.[4]
He is supportive of elected mayors, and has called for a referendum on having an elected mayor for the whole county of Cumbria.[5] Starkie was the first and only Mayor of Copeland. His position was established (after a referendum) to replace the role of a Council leader and Cabinet. It was abolished as part of the local government reorganisation in Cumbria on the 1st April 2023.
Mr Starkie also played a strong role in the Whitehaven coal mine project, cited by many as a national embarrassment in the run up to the 2021 UK hosted climate summit.
Election results
| Copeland mayoral election 7 May 2015 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | 1st round votesTransfer votes, 2nd round | |||||
| Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | |||||
| Independent | Mike Starkie | 9,836 | 30.5% | 5,397 | 15,233 | 51.2% | | ||
| Labour | Steve Gibbons | 12,867 | 39.9% | 1,662 | 14,529 | 48.8% | | ||
| Conservative | Chris Whiteside | 9,509 | 29.5% | | |||||
| Turnout | 32,212 | ||||||||
| Independent win | |||||||||
| Copeland mayoral election 2 May 2019 [6] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | 1st round votesTransfer votes, 2nd round | ||||
| Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
| Independent | Mike Starkie | 10,008 | 57% | | ||||
| Labour | Linda Jones-Bulman | 4,544 | 26% | | ||||
| Conservative | Gerard McGrath | 2,895 | 17% | | ||||
| Turnout | 17,447 | |||||||
| Independent hold | ||||||||