Voters in Sheffield emphatically rejected the idea of an elected mayor and Labour piled in the misery for the Lib Dems in the city council elections.

In the elected mayor referendum 82,390 (65%) people voted against the idea with 44,571 (35%) voting in favour.

In the most notable scalp of the council elections, Labour defeated former council leader Paul Scriven among a raft of gains from the Lib Dems.

The defeat, which saw the Lib Dems knocked into third place by Labour's Jayne Dunn and Bernard Little for the Greens, prompted Mr Scriven to launch a bitter attack on the Labour party for effectively ganging up on him.

Labour ended with ten gains from the Lib Dems to consolidate its control of the council.

Labour now has 59 seats to the Lib Dems' 23 with the Greens on two.

Scriven factor

Paul Scriven said: “What this was was the Scriven factor. I have been the thorn in Labour’s side. There was literally hundreds of Labour activists against my small team.It was a Goliath task for the Lib Dems. But we are not in the wilderness whatsoever. We are a strong, solid opposition and we will hold Labour to account. 

“As the economy gets stronger, they will start to question some decisions at the town hall. Why are they raising the parking permits? Why are they doing this in the interests of the local people?

“They were coming in five by five and trying to get my scalp and they have succeeded in that but what they have not succeeded in is taking down the Lib Dems. We are a strong force in Sheffield.

“I go away with my head held high with Sheffield having the great opportunity to have a forceful opposition to hold Labour to account.”

“This is not the end of the Lib Dems in Sheffield, it is the start of a new chapter."

Labour also retained its control of Rotherham Council claiming 19 out of 21 seats counted in the borough. 

Margaret Godfrey of Labour Party won the seat from the BNP in the Maltby ward. The result means in Rotherham Labour has 58 seats (92.1%), four Conservative (6.3%) and one Independent (1.6%).

The Labour Party has also retained control of Barnsley winning 18 out of 21 seats. 

Doncaster voted to keep its elected mayor and Bristol voted in favour too.

But elsewhere the idea was rejected with Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Nottingham, Coventry, Bradford and Wakefield voting no.

Leeds is still counting.

Meanwhile Liverpool has elected their first mayor Labour’s Joe Anderson.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has revealed today that he voted against the idea of an elected mayor for Sheffield.

A spokesman for Mr Clegg told the Sheffield Star: "Nick has been campaigning in Sheffield for weeks and has picked up no public appetite at all for elected mayors in the city.

"He has an open mind on the issue and thought it was right that it was put to the people of Sheffield but, in the absence of demand from the public, he voted against an elected mayor."

The full results in the cities are shown below.

          Results of an elected mayor in ten cities (%)

City	Yes	No	Turnout
Birmingham	42.2	57.8	208,696
Bradford	44.9	55.1	120,232
Bristol	53.3	46.7	76,912
Coventry	36.4	63.6	62,102
Leeds
Manchester	46.8	53.2	91,270
Newcastle-upon-Tyne	38.1	61.9	64,719
Nottingham	42.5	57.5	49,263
Wakefield	37.8	62.2	72,967
Sheffield	35	65	127,461