Driscoll plans to build movement of independents

North East mayoral election runner-up Jamie Driscoll has revealed his plans for the future

A FORMER North East mayor is plotting a “common sense” revolution of the region’s political scene.

A week after finishing second as an independent candidate in the North East mayoral election, Jamie Driscoll has made clear he has no intention of quietly retreating from public life.

The now ex-North of Tyne mayor quit Labour last year after being blocked from standing against eventual winner Kim McGuinness in a selection contest to decide the party’s candidate for the new, larger mayoralty, amid a dispute surrounding an appearance he made on stage at the Live Theatre with film director Ken Loach.

Mr Driscoll has already hinted that he could run for North East mayor again in 2028 and is undecided on whether to stand in the next general election.

And he has now revealed plans to build a “strong collection of independents” to contest local council and parliamentary seats across the region over the coming years.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service in Newcastle yesterday, the 54-year-old said he wanted to back a movement “based on common sense politics” and “putting the North East first”.

Mr Driscoll said: “By 2026, people are going to be unhappy with Labour. And they won’t be flocking back to Tories – people are going to be looking for something else.

“I think we are going to see people wanting a different form of democracy – genuine representative democracy where their councillors and mayor are answerable to them and not to unelected people in party headquarters.”

His comments came after Labour controversially intervened to replace its council leader in Sunderland this week – blocking local councillors from selecting their own leader and installing Michael Mordey to replace Graeme Miller.

Coun Miller had previously endorsed Mr Driscoll to be Labour’s North East mayoral candidate before the row that saw the Teesside-born former Newcastle councillor ultimately leave the party.

Mr Driscoll added: “I am going to build a network of independents – a lot of people have asked me to. It will be a broad base and people will have to commit to plurality and the belief that it is OK to disagree provided that you can have honest, good faith discussions with people.

“It would need a commitment to representative democracy and belief that you are answerable to the people, letting them question you. A commitment to the Nolan principles [on standards in public life], valuing transparency and equality, and a commitment to tolerance and equality.”

Mr Driscoll finished with 28% of the vote in the North East mayoral election, garnering more than 126,000 votes across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and Durham – though this was almost 60,000 short of Ms McGuinness, who emerged as a comfortable winner on the day.

Despite falling short, Mr Driscoll says he is nonetheless buoyed by the result – particularly in Newcastle and South Tyneside, where he came within 1,500 votes of Labour. South Tyneside Council’s local elections also saw nine independent candidates pick up seats from Labour.

He added: “If you go back to when Labour blocked me in June last year, I think they expected me to walk away. The most remarkable thing about this campaign is the breadth of support I have had.

“There have been Labour members campaigning for me, we had votes from Tories, from Greens, from Lib Dems – and from people who said they have never voted before.

“The fact that we got 126,000 votes – more than the Tories, Reform, and Lib Dems put together with all of their campaign infrastructure – is remarkable.

“From a standing start with no infrastructure whatsoever, we ended up with 600 activists out there for us.”