Labour’s McGuinness sees off independent to win North East mayoral election
Second-placed Jamie Driscoll had quit Labour after he was barred from standing as the party’s candidate in the North East.
Labour’s Kim McGuinness has won the North East mayoral election, defeating former Labour-turned-independent candidate Jamie Driscoll.
In the first contest for the new mayoralty, Ms McGuinness secured 185,051 votes, defeating Mr Driscoll by a margin of just under 60,000 votes.
The election saw controversy for Labour after it excluded Mr Driscoll as a candidate despite his position as the Mayor of North of Tyne.
The decision provoked a backlash from his supporters, who regarded him as the victim of an attempt to purge left-wingers from the party.
In Thursday’s election, he secured 126,652 votes, with Conservative candidate Guy Renner-Thompson coming third on 52,446 and Reform UK’s Paul Donaghy fourth on 41,147.
In her acceptance speech, Ms McGuinness thanked activists, her staff as Northumbria’s police and crime commissioner, and her family.
Mr Driscoll said the result showed there was “a huge appetite for pragmatic transformative policies that reduce inequality and treat people with respect”.
The former mayor was described as the “last Corbynista in power” during his tenure as North of Tyne’s representative, with Labour’s move to block him from the contest in June last year prompting a furious backlash.
A senior Labour source at the time linked the decision to the mayor sharing a panel with filmmaker Ken Loach, who was expelled from the party amid efforts to root out antisemitism from the party.
He continued in his role as mayor as an independent, and crowdfunded his campaign to stand as a candidate in the North East mayoral election.
New mayor Ms McGuiness has served as the Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner since July 2019, after winning a by-election when Dame Vera Baird left the role to become the Government’s victims commissioner.
