North of Tyne Mayor raises funds to run as an independent following Labour party split

North of Tyne Mayor, Jamie Driscoll, has resigned from the Labour party after being blocked from representing the party within the North East’s mayoral election. Driscoll was blocked from running as the parties Mayoral candidate following an onstage appearance with Ken Loach, an expelled Labour Party member and filmmaker.

Police and Crime commisioner, Kim McGuinness, has been selected by the Labour Party to run for the Mayoral position in next years election.

In response, Driscoll has set up a fundraising Campaign saying that, “as an independent I won’t have a national press office behind me, or big money donors. So I’ll need to get the message out to the people.”

Continuing on to say that, “A full campaign will cost around £150,000. I believe in listening to the public – so if you donate £25,000 by the end of August, I promise I’ll run. And if I don’t hit that target, I won’t run. This decision is in your hands.”

In his fundraising campaign he lays out his track record of successes for the North East’s economy saying, “I’ve been North of Tyne Mayor since 2019. Despite the pandemic and national economic chaos, my team and I work with businesses to create over 5,000 new jobs, backed by our Good Work Pledge.”

Within two hours of setting up the campaign, the £25,000 pound target was met.

In his closing remarks within the campaign he wrote, “this is not a time for faint hearts. It’s a time for bravery. If you back me, I will run. If I run, we can win. Shy bairns get nowt.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily