South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner By-Election: Labour's Alan Billings Wins with 50% of Vote

The Labour Party's candidate, Alan Billings, has won the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner by-election.

The election, held on 30 October, was triggered after Labour's Shaun Wright resigned as the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner in September after pressure from constituents and politicians following the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal.

Labour (Billings), Ukip (Jack Clarkson), the Conservative Party (Ian Walker) and the English Democrats (David Allen) fielded candidates in the election and the result was announced on the afternoon of the 31 October.

Billings took more than 50% of first preference votes and he promised to give 50% of his salary to victim support funds.

The turnout at election increased to14.9%, up from 14.5% in 2012.

Ukip were blasted by Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, ahead of the election after unveiled a "hard hitting" '1400 reasons to vote' poster campaign in Rotherham.

The posters accused Labour of failing the victims of the child sex abuse scandal in the area and suggested there are "1,400 reasons why you should not trust Labour again".

"Ukip are clearly more interested in trying to use victims' suffering to win votes than in coming up with solutions," Danczuk said.

"They have never contributed to discussions in terms of child sex abuse. They have decided to create a bandwagon which they are now jumping on."

But Nigel Farage's party defended the move and claimed the posters "bring home a simple truth".

"These posters are certainly hard hitting, but they bring home a simple truth, a truth that is spoken in far harsher terms than this in the shops, bars, and clubs across the region," said Jane Collins, a Ukip candidate in Rotherham.