Jamie Driscoll has slammed Labour bosses and accused them of not trusting the party’s members, after he was blocked from standing to be the first North East mayor because he shared a stage with filmmaker Ken Loach.
The serving North of Tyne mayor has urged Sir Keir Starmer to overturn a ruling that has barred him from Labour’s candidate selection contest for next May's planned election, which will see a new mayor elected to cover a larger combined authority stretching across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and Durham. Labour sources have confirmed that the left-wing mayor’s exclusion was down to his appearance with the I, Daniel Blake director, who was expelled from Labour in 2021 amid efforts to tackle antisemitism experienced in the party during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, at Newcastle’s Live Theatre in March.
A party source said it was “impossible” for Mr Driscoll to be put on the mayoral candidate list because of that event, which the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) called “hugely upsetting” at the time, and his subsequent refusal to apologise. But the former Newcastle councillor has defended his actions and questioned why the party has now blocked his election campaign but did not take any action against him in March.
