Caborn pushed out of race to be elected Mayor

FORMER SPORTS Minister Richard Caborn is out of the running to be the first directly-elected Mayor of South Yorkshire after failing to be shortlisted by Labour.

Mr Caborn, a former trade and industry Minister under Tony Blair and Sheffield Central MP, was interviewed by party officials in Wakefield on Thursday alongside Barnsley MP Dan Jarvis and Sheffield councillor Ben Curran.

But in a surprise move, Labour’s National Executive Committee only put forward Mr Jarvis and Coun Curran on its shortlist as potential candidates for Sheffield City Region Mayor.

Ballot papers will be sent out this month to all eligible party members in South Yorkshire before the winning candidate is announced on March 23.

In a statement, Mr Caborn said: “I was surprised and very disappointed to be informed by the Yorkshire Regional Labour Party that they have decided not to shortlist me to seek selection as our party’s candidate for South Yorkshire Mayor.

“It is a real shame that the South Yorkshire Labour Party membership will now not be able to have their say on whether or not they thought I could represent them as the local Labour Party candidate for this important position. Thanks to everyone for your kind words and messages of support throughout the campaign so far.”

All three hopefuls were asked about their priorities if they were elected as mayor as well as other matters in the public domain that could affect their candidacy.

Mr Caborn is likely to have been asked about the ‘cash for influence’ scandal, where his Parliamentary pass was taken away for six months in 2010 after Commons authorities found he had been “careless” in telling reporters posing as lobbyists how he was able to influence Ministers.