Jamie Driscoll

Jamie Driscoll is a British Independent politician who served as the metro mayor of the North of Tyne Combined Authority from 2019 to 2024. He was previously a councillor on Newcastle City Council for the Monument ward.

Early life
Driscoll was born in Middlesbrough, North Riding of Yorkshire in 1970. His father was a tank driver in the British army before becoming a shift worker at Imperial Chemical Industries, while his mother trained to be a youth worker. He states that his politics is influenced by his mother. He has three siblings: an older brother who served in the Royal Navy; a sister who was a healthcare assistant for the NHS; and a younger brother Jon, who is a football commentator, podcaster and author of The Fifty: Football's Most Influential Players, and ''Get it Kicked! The Battle for the Soul of English Football''. Driscoll left school at 16. During this time, he was training as an engineer making breathing apparatus. Driscoll decided to go to university later on, studying engineering at Northumbria University.

Early career
After university, Driscoll worked as a project engineer and later became the manager and company director for a software development firm.

Political career
Driscoll joined the Labour Party in 1985. He was elected to Newcastle City Council in 2018 to represent Monument ward. He was a member of the campaigning group and the chair of the Newcastle branch of Momentum.

Mayor of North of Tyne
Driscoll stood for selection to be Labour's candidate in the 2019 North of Tyne mayoral election, defeating Newcastle council leader Nick Forbes in February 2019. He ran as the more radical candidate after being supported by left-wing figures, including shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, Noam Chomsky, Paul Mason, Clive Lewis and Laura Pidcock. He also had organisational support from Unite the Union, Momentum, RMT, Fire Brigades Union, TSSA and Aslef.

Driscoll ran on a platform with five primary pledges:


 * 1) Community Wealth Building
 * 2) Green Industrial Revolution
 * 3) Setting up Community Hubs
 * 4) Build Affordable Homes
 * 5) Meaningful Adult Education

Driscoll won the 2019 North of Tyne mayoral election with 56.1% of the vote.

Driscoll called a climate emergency on the day he was elected. In August 2019, he told journalists that, despite the combined authority still needing to find its feet, he was pleased with the progress the authority had made in its first 100 days. Since then, he has invested in the economy, which he claims will create over 5000 jobs, and safeguard 3277 more, funded a non-coercive Working Homes programme to empower social housing residents with new skills, launched a Climate Change teachers programme partnering with the United Nations, and allocated tax funds to rural broadband infrastructure. He has also funded organisations like Kielder Observatory to get more children into STEM subjects, and allocated funds for a youth outreach project in collaboration with Newcastle United F.C.

Driscoll campaigned on his desire for all seven North East local authorities to come together to reform the original North East Combined Authority, made up of Northumberland County Council, Newcastle City Council, North Tyneside Council, Gateshead Council, South Tyneside Council, Sunderland City Council and Durham County Council. In December 2022, it was announced that Driscoll had succeeded in his ambition, spearheading the formation of the North East Mayoral Combined Authority.

In June 2023, Driscoll was barred from the selection process to determine a Labour Party candidate for Mayor of the North East. The decision was defended by Starmer ally Baroness Chapman of Darlington as "simply guaranteeing the highest quality candidates". Unite the Union and its general secretary, Sharon Graham, criticised the decision to exclude Driscoll. Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram described the Labour Party as undemocratic, opaque and unfair. Aditya Chakrabortty wrote in The Guardian that Driscoll was a "victim of McCarthyism". He resigned from Labour and later announced that he would fight the 2024 North East mayoral election as an independent. Driscoll finished second, behind Labour candidate Kim McGuinness.

Personal life
Driscoll lives with his two children and his wife, who is an NHS doctor.

He was criticised for sending his children to private schools.