Three in race to be Labour’s candidate for mayor

LABOUR HAS announced its three hopefuls who will be vying to be the party’s candidate to become West Yorkshire’s first elected metro mayor.

Theshortlistannouncedbythe party is Bradford council leader Susan Hinchcliffe, lawyer Hugh Goulbourne, and Batley and Spen MP Tracy Brabin.

Whoever is chosen as Labour’s candidate will be favourite to win the mayoral election next May, despite the Conservatives’ success in West Yorkshire in December’s General Election.

The shortlisted candidates were agreed by a joint selection panel made up of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee and regional officials following interviews. There will now be a campaign and hustings period, with the ballot opening on November 23 and closing at midday on December 11.

Coun Hinchcliffe, who was born and bred in Bradford, also chairs West Yorkshire Combined Authority and was heavily involved in the devolution talks which led to the creation of the mayoral role.

Mr Goulbourne advised the last Labour government on fuel poverty and environmental issues and says that as a lawyer he is “used to working with business leaders locally and internationally in a wide variety of sectors”.

Ms Brabin, a former Coronation Street actor who served in Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet, says her immediate priority will be to build on work under way already to establish a Job Creation Taskforce.

The mayoral election will take place in May and whoever is elected will gain control over a host of budgets and powers previously held by central government.