Jamie Driscoll has not ruled out taking legal action against the Labour Party, as a battle over his exclusion from the North East mayoral race continues.
The serving North of Tyne mayor has become embroiled in a bitter dispute with the Labour hierarchy, after he was blocked last Friday from a longlist of candidates to stand for election in a wider combined authority area. The left-wing figurehead has urged Sir Keir Starmer to let him back into the race, while the party leader has also come under pressure from fellow Northern mayors Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram.
Mr Driscoll, whose barring has been blamed on his decision to appear on stage with filmmaker Ken Loach in March, has no internal appeal process by which he can challenge the decision of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC). While he has not discounted the possibility of legal action, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands that the cost and time involved could make that option doubtful.
Read More: Labour mayors say Jamie Driscoll 'deserves to be treated with more respect' in party selection fight
Speaking to the LDRS on Sunday, the former Newcastle councillor also did not rule out standing as an independent candidate in the mayoral election next year.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s World At One on Monday if he could take legal action, Mr Driscoll said: “Obviously I’m taking advice on that. And I would absolutely prefer not to go down that route if it’s possible.”
He cited a restarting of Labour’s 2019 North of Tyne mayoral selection process due to a lack of female candidates as a precedent for relaunching a contest. The mayor added: “All I really want is to let the people of the North East choose who is their mayor and not let London Labour choose who is their mayor.”
Speaking to ITV on Monday, Sir Keir addressed the controversy for the first time, saying that party was “going through a rigorous selection exercise” and that he would “make no apologies for saying we want the highest quality candidates".
Mr Driscoll has promised that, regardless of whether he is allowed to rejoin the Labour selection race, he will see out the remainder of his term in the North of Tyne – which will end next May, when the larger North East Mayoral Combined Authority is due to come into being. He also told the LDRS on Sunday that he would not give up his membership of the Labour Party, which he has held since the 1980s.
However, when asked whether that meant he would not stand as an independent in the 2024 mayoral election, he answered: “I want to stand as the Labour candidate, so I am absolutely going to pursue that. We will see what happens. Either way, I am going to run my term out.”
Labour sources have said that it was “impossible” to make Mr Driscoll a candidate for the mayoral post after he appeared on stage at Newcastle’s Live Theatre with Mr Loach, who was kicked out of the party in 2021. The I, Daniel Blake director’s expulsion came amid efforts to root out antisemitism, with the filmmaker complaining at the time of a “purge” of Jeremy Corbyn allies, and the Jewish Labour Movement called the mayor's interview with him “hugely upsetting” .
But figures on the left of the party claimed “factionalism” is behind the decision to freeze out Mr Driscoll, while the Unite union called it a “major mistake”. South Shields MP Emma-Lewell Buck, who had endorsed Mr Driscoll’s campaign last month, said she was “utterly baffled" and "deeply disappointed”.
However, the region’s other Labour MPs have stayed silent on the controversy.
A Labour source said on Sunday: “Jamie caused great hurt and upset by holding events with someone kicked out of the Labour Party for antisemitism. He then refused to apologise and has repeatedly done so again in the media today. Those decisions have consequences - namely, that it was impossible for him to go forward as a Labour candidate.”
They added: "He was judged by his peers, a panel of democratically elected NEC members, who unanimously judged him inappropriate to be a candidate."
The three names who did make the list of prospective Labour candidates for the North East mayoral role are Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness, Newcastle city councillor Nicu Ion, and former MEP Paul Brannen. Ms McGuinness, who along with Mr Driscoll has long been considered one of the leading contenders for the job, launched her manifesto at an event in Sunderland on Saturday morning with the backing of MPs including Sharon Hodgson and Catherine McKinnell.
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