Oliver Coppard | |
|---|---|
 Coppard in 2024 | |
| Mayor of South Yorkshire | |
| Assumed office 9 May 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Dan Jarvis |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Oliver James Coppard 9 June 1981 South Yorkshire,England |
| Political party | Labour Co-op |
| Alma mater | University of Leeds (BA) |
Oliver James Coppard (born 9 June 1981) is a British Labour and Co-operative politician serving as Mayor of South Yorkshire since 2022. [1] He was re-elected in 2024. [2]
Coppard attended Silverdale School and High Storrs School. [3]
He was awarded a bachelor's degree in Politics and Parliamentary Studies from the University of Leeds. [4] During his tenure at Leeds,he interned in the office of Dick Gephardt,then the Democratic Leader in the US House of Representatives. Coppard later interned in the office of Meg Munn when she was Member of Parliament for Sheffield Heeley. [5]
At the 2004 Sheffield City Council election,Coppard was one of three Labour candidates who unsuccessfully contested Graves Park.
Coppard volunteered for the Obama campaign for the 2012 US presidential election. He was director of the remain campaign in Yorkshire,the Humber and Lincolnshire for the 2016 European Union referendum.
Coppard stood in Sheffield Hallam at the 2015 general election,against then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. [6] He failed to defeat Clegg but achieved a swing of over 16% from the Liberal Democrats to Labour. Coppard has stated that he chose not to contest the seat in 2019 due to Labour antisemitism. [7]
In the 2022 South Yorkshire mayoral election,Coppard was selected as the Labour candidate. [8] [5] He won the election,getting a plurality of votes in the first round,at 43.1% and defeating the Conservative candidate Clive Watkinson by a margin of 71.4% to 28.6% in the second round. [9] [10] [1]
On 12 March 2024,Coppard announced £2.2 million funding to provide a safe space to sleep for every child aged 0-5 in South Yorkshire. [11] Coppard told the Yorkshire Post that he established the programme because he knew that 'one in nine babies that go home from hospital in Sheffield alone go home without a safe place to sleep' and they can 'end up sleeping in a bath or a box,a drawer,in a bouncy chair'. [12]
On 22 March 2024,under Coppard's leadership the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority formally brought the Supertram under public control. [13] This move was welcomed by commentators,with Matthew Topham from Better Buses for South Yorkshire calling 'a day of celebration when our local transport will be run by and for the people it serves' [14] and a Sheffield Councillor called it a 'brave decision' that deserves 'all of our support' in a column for the Sheffield Telegraph .' [15]
Coppard is a resident of Sheffield. He is Jewish. [16] Coppard is the Board Chair at the Sheffield Hallam Students' Union.
Sheffield Hallam is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Olivia Blake of the Labour Party.
The South Yorkshire Supertram,sometimes referred to as the Sheffield Supertram,is a tram and tram-train network covering Sheffield and Rotherham in South Yorkshire,England. The network is owned and operated by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA).
The City of Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire,England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Sheffield,the town of Stocksbridge and the larger village of Chapeltown and part of the Peak District. It has a population of 566,242 (2022),making it technically the third largest city in England by population behind Birmingham and Leeds,since London is not considered a single entity. It is governed by Sheffield City Council.
Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg is a British retired politician and media executive who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2005 to 2017. An "Orange Book" liberal,he has been associated with both socially liberal and economically liberal policies.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) is a political party in the United Kingdom,established in 1990. The current party traces its origin to the Social Democratic Party,which was formed in 1981 by a group of dissident Labour Party Members of Parliament (MPs) and former Cabinet members Roy Jenkins,David Owen,Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams,who became known as the Gang of Four. The original SDP merged with the Liberal Party in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats,but Owen,two other MPs and a minority of party activists formed a breakaway group also called the Social Democratic Party immediately afterwards. That continuing party dissolved itself in the aftermath of a by-election in Bootle,in which the party's candidate received fewer votes than Screaming Lord Sutch's Official Monster Raving Loony Party. However,some SDP activists met and voted to continue the party in defiance of its National Executive,leading to the creation in 1990 of the current Social Democratic Party under the leadership of the candidate who lost that by-election. The party has been led since 2018 by William Clouston.
South Yorkshire Police (SYP) is the territorial police force responsible for policing South Yorkshire in England. The force is led by Chief Constable Lauren Poultney. Oversight is conducted by Mayor Oliver Coppard.
"People's Republic of South Yorkshire" or "Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire" were nicknames often given to South Yorkshire under the left-wing local governments of the 1980s,especially the municipal socialist administration of Sheffield City Council led by David Blunkett,used by both detractors and supporters of the councils. The councils pursued a social policy radically different from that of Margaret Thatcher's national government,following more closely along the lines of Militant tendency-dominated Liverpool City Council and the Greater London Council led by Ken Livingstone.
Daniel Owen Woolgar Jarvis is a British politician and former Army officer who has served as Minister of State for Security since July 2024,and as Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnsley North,formerly Barnsley Central,since 2011. A member of the Labour and Co-operative Party,he was Mayor of South Yorkshire,formerly Sheffield City Region,from 2018 to 2022. Jarvis served as a member of the Parachute Regiment from 1997 to 2011.
Olivia Frances Blake-Dagnall is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam since 2019.
The Yorkshire Party is a regionalist political party in Yorkshire,a historic county of England. The party,which was founded in 2014,campaigns for the establishment of a devolved Yorkshire Parliament within the United Kingdom,with powers over education,environment,transportation and housing.
The South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner was the police and crime commissioner of the South Yorkshire Police in South Yorkshire.
The South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner by-election was a 2014 by-election on 30 October 2014 for the position of Police and Crime Commissioner in the South Yorkshire Police region of the United Kingdom. It was triggered by the resignation of Shaun Wright,the inaugural South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner,who stepped down from the position on 16 September 2014 following the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal. Wright had been head of children's services in Rotherham between 2005 and 2010,while events surrounding the scandal were taking place. The Labour candidate,Alan Billings,was elected.
The 2017 United Kingdom general election in England was held on Thursday 8 June 2017 across 533 constituencies within England.
Jared Cain O'Mara is a British convicted fraudster and former Labour politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2017 to 2019.
The inaugural Sheffield City Region mayoral election was held on 3 May 2018 to elect the mayor of the Sheffield City Region. The mayor will lead the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority. Voting is restricted to the four councils which are constituent members of the combined authority:Barnsley,Doncaster,Rotherham and Sheffield. Together these councils make up South Yorkshire.
Shaffaq Mohammed is a British politician who served as a Liberal Democrats Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Yorkshire and the Humber from 2019 to 2020. He stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Sheffield Hallam in the House of Commons at the 2024 general election,coming in second to Olivia Blake of Labour.
The 2022 South Yorkshire mayoral election took place on 5 May 2022 to elect the Mayor of South Yorkshire,the leader of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority. It took place alongside other local elections across the United Kingdom. The Labour and Co-operative Party candidate,Oliver Coppard,won the election in the second round with 71.4% of the vote.
Travel South Yorkshire is the public transport passenger information brand used by South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority. It was originally the public facing brand of the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive before it was dissolved and merged into SYMCA in April 2023.
The 2024 South Yorkshire mayoral election was held on 2 May 2024 to elect the mayor of South Yorkshire as part of the 2024 United Kingdom local elections. The incumbent Labour and Co-operative Party mayor,Oliver Coppard,was re-elected.