Revealed: How much each West Midlands Mayor candidate spent in their campaign

Official election expenses show that defeated Labour candidate Sion Simon spent £130,084.71 in the official campaign from March 27 to May 4, £1,700 short of the maximum spend allowed under electoral rules.

Conservative Andy Street, who won the election by 4,000 votes, spent £117,903.31 over the same period.

In stark contrast UKIP candidate Pete Durnell spent just £7,353.78 - including £1,300 of his own money.

Candidate spending is tightly controlled during the official election period. However, prior to March 27 there is no ceiling on spending, and Mr Street is said to have raised in excess of £1 million for his campaign prior to March 27.

The figures, which have been released by Birmingham City Council, show the disparity in electoral spending between candidates, with those representing major parties bankrolled by significant cash boosts from regional headquarters.

They also give an insight as to how the candidates fought their respective campaigns for the top job, highlighting how social media advertising plays an increasingly important role in modern day election battles.

All candidates paid a £5,000 deposit to participate in the election, which is not usually included in expense returns.

Mr Simon spent a shade under his allotted spending limit, which is calculated based on a West Midlands electorate of 1.95 million.

To finance his bid for power he received donations of £128,641.80 from the West Midlands Labour Party and £1,442 from Birmingham Labour.

The bulk of the Labour candidates' single item expenditure - £55,242 - went on leaflets and letter drops, including a campaign leaflet sent out to thousands of homes in Wolverhampton that featured Mr Simon standing in front of The Hawthorns.

Unlike the majority of the other candidates Mr Simon did not spend big on social media, with his total bill for Facebook advertising coming in at just £32.24.

Mr Street's £117,903.31 spend included a whopping £55,040 in leaflet drops. He also spent £21,571 on advertising, £5,253 of which went on newspaper advertising.

The Tory candidate's staffing costs for the campaign was £32,130, while he also spent £2,058 on a campaign office in Edgbaston.

Other items included in his expenses were £969 spent on t-shirts and £175 on balloons - with £96 spent on helium.

Mr Street's entire campaign from March 27 up to polling day was financed by a lump sum donation from the Conservative Party.

Lib Dem candidate Beverley Nielsen, who came third in the election with 5.9 per cent of the vote, spent a total of £13,134.37 on her campaign.

Of the £7,307 expenditure on advertising, £6,000 went on two large hoardings on the M5 and A38.

Ms Nielsen also spent big on social media, with £1,300 spent on Facebook and £600 on social media monitoring.

She spent £3,650 on leaflet drops and employed a firm of communications consultants for £1,500. Ms Nielsen raised £4,660 in donations.

Green Party candidate James Burn's total spend was £7,362.44, of which £6,194 went on leaflet drops.

The Solihull councillor also paid £69.50 to have a website set up.

UKIP's Pete Durnell spent £7,353.78, made up of £6,050 in donations and £1,303.78 of his own money.

Like Ms Nielsen, a high proportion of his expenditures - £1,774.08 - was spent on Facebook adverts.

Communist Party candidate Graham Stevenson joined the campaign later than the other five candidates.

He managed to raise a total of £10,364.04 in short time, which he used to pay for his £5,000 deposit and production of an election booklet (£5,000).

However, in the immediate aftermath of the result he was still attempting to pay off an additional cost of around £2,000 for leaflets and Morning Star adverts.

Among the donations he received was £1,000 from the Oxford Communist Party.

All expenses have been sent to the Electoral Commission to be signed off.

Mr Street won the West Midlands' inaugural mayoral election with 50.4 per cent of the vote in the final round. West Midlands MEP Mr Simon polled 49.6 per cent and came second.