Stage set for North East mayoral battle
The intense political battle over who will become the first elected mayor of the North East has taken another twist – in the latest day of high drama in the Labour Party.
A bitter feud over the impending mayoral election, which is scheduled for next May, came to a head on Monday lunchtime.
Within minutes of Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Kim McGuinness being announced as Labour’s candidate for the historic ballot, the sitting North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll rained on that parade by dramatically revealing that he had quit the party in a stinging letter to Sir Keir Starmer.
After he was controversially blocked from standing in Labour’s selection contest last month, Mr Driscoll lashed out at the party’s leadership and will now see out the remaining 10 months of his term as an independent.
The left-wing mayor also pledged that he would run against Ms McGuinness in 2024 if he could raise £25,000 by the end of August – a target that he smashed within just two hours of his announcement to set the stage for an intriguing election next May.
Having been denied the chance to take on the PCC, who is closely aligned with Sir Keir, in a vote among party members this summer, Mr Driscoll will instead now test his popularity against her at the ballot box as he seeks the leadership of a new, bigger combined authority that will cover all Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and Durham.
While he had previously pledged that he would not relinquish his membership of the party which he joined in 1985, Mr Driscoll said he changed his mind after deeming a legal challenge against Labour “extraordinarily expensive” and because of the level of support he had received from across the political spectrum.
He said: “I am the sort of mayor who just gets on and does his job, I am not someone who does loads of selfies saying ‘look at me being good’. To hear that you have that much support and people have respect for the way I work cross party really chimes.”
Labour had pinned the decision of its National Executive Committee to exclude Mr Driscoll from the candidate selection contest on an appearance he made on stage at Newcastle’s Live Theatre with film director Ken Loach, who was expelled from the party in 2021.
The move was branded a “monumental own goal” for the party by a number of trade unions, while the likes of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham had also urged Labour to at least let Mr Driscoll appeal the decision.
Having cited Ken Livingstone’s 2000 victory as an independent to become mayor of London as evidence that he can win next May despite Labour’s dominance in the North East, Mr Driscoll added: “There are a lot of people who are not in the political bubble, but have still got a lot of common sense and they can tell when they see someone who is telling the truth, someone who keeps their word, someone who is more interested in delivering good results than messing about playing daft political games… Whether you voted Leave or Remain, you still feel if you live in the North East that decisions are taken by people too far away.
“They will want someone who will put the region ahead of anything to do with their career and be willing to stand up to whatever government wins now and in the future.”
Since Mr Driscoll was excluded from the Labour selection race in June, it was seen as a foregone conclusion that Ms McGuinness would emerge victorious.
In the end, she polled 76% of the vote in a ballot of party members in which her only competitor was former MEP Paul Brannen.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service on the Gateshead Quayside, the former Newcastle councillor refused to be drawn on Mr Driscoll’s challenge.
She said: “I am not here to talk about any other candidate. I will stand against whoever wants to put themselves forward for mayor.
“I believe this region needs a Labour mayor and I have presented a really positive vision and that is my plan into the campaign. I want to give the people of the region something really positive to get behind.
“This is the best place in the world, the best place to live, but we have really deep challenges.
“So putting child poverty at the centre of everything, bringing buses back under public control, making more of our culture and sport and all the fantastic things we have here, and creating good quality local jobs is what this is all about.”