Labour's Andy Burnham has won a decisive victory in the Greater Manchester mayoral race.
Mr Burnham, a former Labour minister, was easily re-elected with 67% of the vote in the first round of the contest.
The Tory candidate Laura Evans trailed behind on just 19%.
Mr Burnham was dubbed "King of the North" for rejecting the Government's attempts to plunge his region into tougher Covid restrictions without additional support.
In his victory speech, he fired off a warning to Boris Johnson, saying: "Don't give us devolution and then be surprised if we answer you back, particularly if you do things here that you would never dare to do in London."
He said it was clear voters wanted more devolution as "they like us having the ability to do more for ourselves".
His victory had been widely expected but it will offer a boost to Keir Starmer after a grim set of election results for Labour.
The party suffered a devastating defeat at the Hartlepool by-election and lost scores of council seats across England.
But there were glimmers of hope on Saturday, when Labour won a series of key mayoral races.
Labour's Steve Rotheram was re-elected as mayor of Liverpool City Region, while the party also kept its mayors in North Tyneside and Salford.
In a major boost, the party also snatched the West of England mayoralty from the Conservatives.
Dan Norris won 125,482 votes in the second round, while his Tory challenger Samuel Williams trailed behind on 85,389 votes.
In Wales, Labour surpassed expectations to win 30 seats in the 60-seat Senedd, allowing First Minister Mark Drakeford to lead the new Welsh Government.
While the party fell one seat short of a majority, Mr Drakeford can either form a minority administration or a Labour-led authority.
