North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll has quit the Labour Party and will run as an independent.
The move is a confirmation of what Driscoll told EG’s Office Politics podcast, that he would run as an independent if enough people wanted him to.
Driscoll had planned to run for the new North East mayoral position next year, but his candidacy was effectively blocked by Labour’s national executive committee. On Monday, Labour members selected Kim McGuinness, the current Northumbria police and crime commissioner, from a shortlist of three to be their candidate for North East mayor.
In a two-page resignation letter, written “in candour”, Driscoll told Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer: “It is not grown-up politics to say Britain is broken and then claim things are now so difficult we will abandon any plan to fix it. That is mental gymnastics worthy of Olympic gold.”
The mayor, who created the role after winning the 2019 election, has negotiated a £4.3bn new devolution deal with government and won agreement to double the size of the combined authority, adding Sunderland and Gateshead to Newcastle and Northumberland.
While he has been described as the “last Corbynista in power”, Driscoll now serves as an independent and will run as a candidate not affiliated with any political party in the North East mayoral election.
Driscoll said: “If I can raise £25,000 by the end of August, I’ll run.” A GoFundMe page to fund his campaign, with a target of £150,000, raised £25,000 in just two hours of being launched yesterday.
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