By Adrian Troughton of the Leicester Mercury

Leicester’s newly-elected mayor Sir Peter Soulsby was today putting plans into place to turn his vision for the city into a reality.

The former council leader and MP said he wanted Leicester to be a greener, more vibrant, forward-looking place with opportunities for all.

"The challenge I have to meet is to create a city for the people with the help of the people.

"The eyes of the country will be upon Leicester and what we do here may well be held up as a blueprint for other cities who want to follow our lead and elect a mayor."

Read more of the Leicester Mercury article.

We’d like to thank the people of Leicester for Labour’s landslide victory across the city yesterday and for putting their trust in us. Labour won 52 out of 54 Leicester City Council seats, with Peter Soulsby becoming Leicester’s first directly elected mayor with an emphatic majority across the city. Jon Ashworth won the Leicester South by-election with an increased majority which capped a stunning political endorsement of Labour in Leicester.

We know that this trust by the people of Leicester puts a heavy burden on us to be accountable, open and honest and we plan to rise to this challenge to build a more confident and prosperous city for all the communities and people of Leicester.

With only one Conservative and one Liberal Democrat Councillor left in the city it has sent out a clear message to the Tory-led Government that their policies are hurting people in their day to day lives.

Read the Leicester Mercury’s opinion piece in today’s paper “A new era for Leicester and city’s first directly-elected mayor”

You can see the full results on the Leicester City Council Website.

This Thursday, the people of Leicester get to vote and to set the direction of this great city for the next four years. Leicester Labour has set out a detailed manifesto to take us all forward, even in these tough times, and to continue to invest and support the growth and prosperity which Leicester deserves.

Labour is proud of its achievements in Leicester and these can be seen in our communities with new secondary schools, sure start centres, leisure & arts facilities and business start-up support. Labour has always been a party of optimists, believing that what we can all achieve together is far more powerful than what we can individually.

By electing a Labour Mayor, a new Labour MP for Leicester South and local Labour councillors on Thursday, then we can continue to provide a powerful first line of protection to the people of Leicester and the valuable services they rely on from the harshness of this Tory-led Government.

With economic growth now stalled, high inflation, increases in VAT and national insurance, ever increasing fuel costs and cuts to frontline public services, this Tory dominated Government has shown that it has not learnt from its past mistakes. It is increasing unemployment and making it harder to reduce the deficit, not easier, thereby hurting ordinary people hard.

Vote Labour on Thursday 5th May and we can work together to fulfil the potential of Leicester.