Labour had a lucky escape in the North East

The election for the first North East of England mayor should have been a gift to the Labour party. Its candidate Kim McGuinness has duly won the role, but her tally of 41 per cent is superficially modest. This region is one of the Labour movement’s heartlands, steeped in coal-mining, shipbuilding and steel-making. It gave birth to the Jarrow March and the Durham Miners’ Gala. Ramsay MacDonald, Hugh Dalton and Manny Shinwell all represented Durham seats. The culture of the region is steeped in working-class pride and struggle. But, last year, something odd happened.

Labour began the process of choosing its candidate for the mayoral election over the summer. An early and obvious front runner was Jamie Driscoll: born in Middlesbrough, he was a councillor in Newcastle before being elected inaugural mayor of the North of Tyne in 2019.