Jamie Driscoll, the former Labour metro mayor for North of Tyne who later played a role setting up Your Party, has joined the Greens, the party has announced.
It comes two days after five Labour councillors in the north London borough of Brent defected to the Greens, saying they were disillusioned about the party’s direction under Keir Starmer.
Driscoll, a former Newcastle councillor who served as mayor from 2019 to 2024, left Labour in 2023 after the party blocked him from running again. He stood as an independent, coming second to Labour’s Kim McGuinness.
Driscoll was later involved in efforts to set up a new leftwing party in association with the former Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, which eventually became Your Party. He ended his involvement in the project after it became mired in disputes and infighting.
In a statement, Driscoll said he had joined the Greens “because I see an organisation that’s serious about running our country in the long-term interests of all our people”.
He said: “Britain’s a mess. British politics is a mess and it’s not the fault of immigrants. Food prices, energy prices, housing prices are all too high. Our economy isn’t working for workers, it isn’t working for small businesses. It doesn’t have to be like this.”
Driscoll has joined the party in Newcastle, one of the places where the Greens hope to make gains in local elections across England in May next year.
The Greens have experienced a surge in membership and a rise in polling numbers since Zack Polanski won the race to lead the party in England and Wales in September, bringing a new energy to campaigning and messaging, especially on social media.
A number of councillors elected for Labour have moved to join the Greens, although the defections have not yet been near the scale of former Conservatives going to Reform UK.
Like Driscoll, some have been people already at loggerheads with Labour. After the five Brent councillors defected, Labour said they had previously not been reselected to contest their wards next May.
Polanski said Driscoll’s defection was “another example of the Green surge sweeping across the country”.
He said: “Jamie is a well-known political figure with a proven track record of delivering real change to people’s lives. People are looking for bold politics that offers hope rather than fear, and solutions rather than division. Newcastle Greens are growing fast because they’re delivering for their communities. It’s great to see Jamie Driscoll choosing to be part of a party that’s building real momentum from the ground up.”
There are four Greens on Newcastle city council and 29 Labour councillors.
