A former detective called Colin Sutton has been elected to oversee policing in Norfolk, giving Reform UK its first win of this kind at the ballot box.

Sutton received 32,647 votes and won by 14,299. The result was declared on Friday 17 July 2026. The Conservative candidate Matthew Taylor came second. Seven people stood in the election, and only 17% of eligible voters took part (BBC News).

Police and crime commissioners are elected officials who keep an eye on their local police force. They set the budget, hold the chief constable to account, and decide priorities for tackling crime. Think of them as a public watchdog for the police — chosen by voters, not appointed behind closed doors.

The job had come open in a roundabout way. Sarah Taylor was elected as Labour's commissioner for Norfolk, then left the party to sit as an independent, and later resigned the post entirely. That left no choice but to hold a fresh election. Seven candidates put themselves forward, including Mark Rhoades Buckton, Beth Jones and Martin Schmierer, alongside Sutton and Matthew Taylor.

Sutton is the first Reform UK candidate to win a police commissioner election outright. Another commissioner, Rupert Matthews in Leicestershire, joined Reform UK in August 2025 after being elected for a different party. A police oversight panel in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight has also included Reform UK representatives since July 2026.

The role Sutton has won may not exist for long. Plans are being developed to scrap the position and replace it with a mayor covering both Norfolk and Suffolk. That mayor would take over responsibility for policing, similar to how mayors already oversee police forces in areas like the West Midlands and Greater Manchester. The timeline for this change is not yet fixed.

The wider picture matters for anyone following Reform UK's growth in elected office. The party now has one commissioner elected at the polls, one who switched to the party while already in the job, and members on at least one local police panel. The 17% turnout raises familiar questions about how much of a mandate these commissioners really have. A majority of 14,299 is large among those who voted, but it comes from a small slice of the people who could have done so.

For the Conservative Party, the defeat in Norfolk is uncomfortable. The party has usually done well there, and losing a commissioner election to Reform UK rather than to Labour or the Liberal Democrats is a result its headquarters will not welcome. Whether this was down to Sutton's personal appeal or a wider shift toward Reform UK is a question that one by-election with low turnout and seven candidates cannot answer.

There is an irony in the devolution angle. Sutton may hold the Norfolk role for only a limited time before it disappears into a larger mayor's job covering two counties. If the mayor plan goes ahead, policing accountability would sit with someone elected across a much bigger area than a single county.

Reform UK has been targeting these lower-profile policing roles because they come with real power over how police forces are run. Sutton's experience as a former detective gives the party something to point to: a candidate who has worked in policing, not just a political figure. How he uses the role, and for how long, will depend on how quickly devolution moves forward in East Anglia.