The new North of Tyne mayor has tentatively signalled support for a second EU referendum.
He called having a vote on any Brexit deal "probably the responsible and sensible thing to do" immediately after winning the landmark election.
Jamie Driscoll Labour's Jamie Driscoll becomes first North of Tyne mayor and sets out socialist agenda, running on a left-wing platform and vowing to bring a socialist agenda to the region.
But during the campaign he came in for criticism over his ambiguous stance on Brexit after a car-crash ITV interview.
Labour shadow ministers are locked in negotiations with the Government to see if a form of Theresa May's Brexit deal can be agreed that a majority of the Commons could get behind.
But a row broke out ahead of the European elections - slated to take place on May 23 - over whether the party would publicly commit to a second referendum on any deal.
At present, Labour policy is to only a referendum on a deal they wouldn't support in the Commons.
Jeremy Corbyn - who opposed hardening Labour's commitment to another vote - won the argument this week but the new mayor signalled he's more open to a new vote than his party leader.
Labour's Jamie Driscoll becomes first North of Tyne mayor and sets out socialist agenda
Speaking to ChronicleLive immediately after winning the election, he sought to clarify his position and signalled he would back a vote on the final deal.
He said: "First of all the mayor has no vote on Brexit so it's all about a personal opinion, I can't vote in parliament.
"I've said really quite clearly that a no-deal Brexit would be a bad thing for our region.
"We would see factories closing and I don't think anybody has voted to put themselves out of a job.
"But people did vote to leave and the responsible thing to do is to follow that process through to see what kind of deal is possible.
"I think more credit needs to be given to the Labour to actually trying to take this seriously, seeing what's possible.
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"Then, and only then, once we know the actual facts of it, would be the time to start saying 'should we have a second referendum on it'?"
Asked if he would support that, he said: "I think that's probably what's going to happen, I think it's the responsible and sensible thing to do but, you know what, I'm actually hoping there's going to be a general election soon anyway."
During his acceptance speech, he said the Government had "bungled the Brexit negotiations".
After no candidate secured 50% of the vote after , Mr Driscoll went head-to-head with Conservative candidate Charlie Hoult and won by 76,862 votes to 60,089.
Three other candidates failed to make the final run-off: Independent John McCabe (31,507 votes), Liberal Democrat John Appleby (23,768 votes) and UKIP's Hugh Jackson (20,131 votes).
The total number of verified votes was 185,695 on a turnout of 32.3%.
Mr Driscoll used his acceptance speech to set out his socialist agenda but was attacked by Mr Hoult for setting out a vision of "Venezuela on Tyne".
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