A former Labour mayor has predicted the party will lose control of four North East councils in 2026, as he announced he is joining the Green Party.
Ex-North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll was unveiled as the Greens’ latest recruit on Wednesday morning, with the party seeking an electoral boom under new leader Zack Polanski.
The 55-year-old was elected to the mayoral post in 2019 for Labour, before dramatically quitting the party in 2023 and finishing second as an independent in last year’s North East mayor election.
Speaking at a press conference at the Newcastle Bangladeshi Association in Elswick, Mr Driscoll said that he expected the Greens to be a “serious” force at a crunch set of local elections next May when Labour’s dominance across Tyne and Wear is under threat and Reform UK will be hoping to replicate the success that swept it into power in Durham.
Image: X/Jamie Driscoll
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We have all-out elections in Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, and South Tyneside and people are not going to be voting Labour. Labour already know they have lost all those councils.
“They are all out elections which means the entire council can change. And there is a [Green] surge and people are looking for something different.
“Politics is febrile because nobody can answer the questions of whether my kids are going to be better off than I was or am I going to be able to get an appointment on the NHS, despite all the rhetoric there are still 7.3 million people waiting for treatment. You can either stand by and think ‘I told you so, it has all gone wrong’, or you can get on the pitch and try to do something about it.”
After the end of his mayoral term, Mr Driscoll launched Majority – a progressive left-wing campaign movement and political party.
He was also embroiled in the dispute around Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party, resigning as director of a company which handled more than £800,000 of donations which Ms Sultana was accused of withholding.
Mr Driscoll confirmed he will seek to stand for the Greens in Newcastle next May, most likely in the Monument ward where he previously served as a Labour councillor.
When asked if he expected to run for mayor again in 2028, he hinted that he could seek to become an MP instead.
He said: “We will see. Politics has changed so rapidly… who would have predicted where we are now? Just last July when Keir Starmer said ‘we have a 174 majority’, [now] they feel like they have given up. I have a lot of people to talk to and I have not spoken to my wife about this either.
“But it may be that if the Greens are going to have 100 people going into there [Parliament] with a hung Parliament, possibly then with another election, a coalition, who knows, then I think my talents – having run part of Government – might be better served there. But it is not up to me, people get a vote in this.”
After Wednesday’s announcement, Labour accused Mr Driscoll of being a “political liability”, while Newcastle’s Lib Dems accused him of being “motivated solely by personal ambition”.
Asked about his changing political affiliations and whether he expected to stay in the Green Party long-term, Mr Driscoll replied: “I have not changed… everything that I was fighting for, for example in the mayoral election, as an independent was the same manifesto I had in the Labour Party, which is the same thing I will be fighting for in the Green Party. We need a much better integrated transport system so that kids in Blyth can get a job in Team Valley… I know kids who have turned down jobs because the transport system is too poor and that is a priority for the Greens because it works – it is better for people, it generates money, and it tackles the damage the climate is suffering from human emissions.
“Everything I have been fighting for really hasn’t changed for 30 or 40 years.”
He added that Majority would continue as a “social movement” and campaigning body running training for prospective election candidates, including from the Greens, and said he was no longer a member of the Majority political party.
Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali has challenged local Greens to become the leading force on Newcastle City Council at next May’s elections.
The council has been run by Labour since 2011 but is currently under no overall political control, with the Greens holding four of its 78 seats.
Mr Ali, who announced the Greens had gained more than 1,000 new members on Tyneside in the past two months, said: “We have a Green Party in the North East, in Newcastle in particular, that is really surging and looking at being part of the administration next year. Hopefully Jamie joining will now turn that so that rather than being part of the administration, we can control the administration. That is the challenge I am going to set for Jamie.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “From Independent, to Majority, a significant part of the founding of Your Party, and now the Greens, all in the last year and a half. Jamie Driscoll is a political liability.
“Only Labour can deliver the fairer future Newcastle and the wider North East needs. And that’s what we’re doing by lifting over half a million children out of poverty, cutting waiting lists, boosting the minimum wage, saving people money on their energy bills, and just this week we’ve delivered the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.”
Colin Ferguson, Newcastle’s Lib Dem leader, added: “Newcastle deserves better than political representatives motivated solely by personal ambition. When he was elected as a Labour councillor in 2018, he lasted a year before his aspirations took over. If he runs for the Greens in Newcastle in May, will he last any longer? This move is not about party, politics or principles.”
