IF good things come in threes then newly re-elected Hartlepool Mayor Stuart Drummond must be hoping his beloved Hartlepool United can book their place in the play-offs this weekend and make it a hat-trick of wins.

Mr Drummond secured a double victory today - first by scoring a resounding win in Hartlepool's vote for a directly-elected mayor and then by proposing to his girlfriend during his acceptance speech.

The Hartlepool mayor, who was elected last time round dressed in a monkey suit, polled 10,000 more votes than his nearest rival - Labour's Carl Richardson.

During his victory speech a jubilant Mr Drummond, 31, thanked the people of Hartlepool for giving him such an overwhelming mandate before asking his girlfriend Rebecca Buttery to marry him.

The mayor, who has travelled to Bournemouth today to see if Hartlepool United can win a place in the League 1 play-offs in their final match of the season, said: "I'm absolutely chuffed to bits. I'd been getting good feedback in the last few weeks but I wasn't expecting such a great result.

"The fact that Rebecca has said she will marry me is just the icing on the cake. I was weighing up whether to ask her but it wasn't till I got up there that I decided to take the plunge."

The former Hartlepool United mascot found himself chosen as the town's first elected mayor three years ago.

After standing as a joke as H'Angus the Monkey, a shocked Mr Drummond suddenly found himself overseeing more than 4,000 staff and a £100m-plus revenue budget.

The former call centre worker defeated established local politicians and confessed he had no prior interest in politics.

Despite winning in the town in Thursday's General Election, Labour were once again pushed into an embarrassing second place by the re-elected mayor.

Hartlepool Labour MP Iain Wright said: "Obviously on a political level this is a disappointment but I know Stuart and I know he wants the best for the town so I'm looking forward to a good working relationship."

With voter turnout up to around 50 per cent, compared with 30 per cent last time round, Mr Drummond saw his majority go up by nearly 9,500 votes from three years ago.

His girlfriend Rebecca Buttery, 29, said of the proposal: "I wasn't expecting that at all. It's a lovely surprise, if a little embarrassing."