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Anger and apathy defined what could be a bruising day for Labour in its traditional north-east stronghold.
With Conservative ratings at rock-bottom across the rest of the country, Labour may have had reason to be hopeful of a stroll to victory in the region’s inaugural mayoral contest.
But as polls opened on Thursday morning, the party found itself on shaky ground, with independent challenger Jamie Driscoll hailing a “people-powered political earthquake”, which has reportedly left him neck-and-neck with the official candidate of his former party.
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Driscoll, the incumbent North of Tyne Mayor – the rump authority formed when four of the north-east’s seven local authorities rejected a previous devolution deal – was barred from Labour’s selection process to head the revamped body, which will now take in the entire region from the Tees to the Tweed, after he shared a platform with filmmaker Ken Loach.
Labour opted to endorse Kim McGuinness, a former Newcastle city councillor and current Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).
But in Driscoll’s Newcastle base at least, there were plenty of voters who said they planned to shun the party in the mayoral contest over the handling of the row.
Liz O’Donnell, in the city’s leafy Gosforth, said Driscoll had been “shamefully treated by the Labour Party”.
She added: “I haven’t voted for the Labour candidate for that reason. I think he has been an excellent North of Tyne Mayor, Kim McGuinness has been a bit of a shadow figure and I feel we need someone who will stand up for the region.”
Just down the road in South Gosforth, the same sentiment was echoed by Alex Slack, who headed to vote with wife Ciara and dog Ruby, declaring an “amazing” devolution deal had been “marred by the politics and Labour’s treatment of Jamie Driscoll”.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Wendy Taylor, a consultant at the nearby Freeman Hospital, summed up the contest as it stood, saying: “A lot of people thought Jamie Driscoll didn’t have a chance… but that looks different now.”
PCC Who?
While there has been plenty of interest in whether or not McGuinness will fall flat, especially given the campaign cash lavished on front page adverts in the local press, less thought has been given to who will replace her as one of the region’s three PCCs.
Northumbria had a strong start to the PCC regime with the election of Dame Vera Baird, a former Labour MP who came to prominence in the 1980s, defending striker miners who clashed with police at the Battle of Orgreave, in South Yorkshire.
But voters have been less impressed with the list of candidates this time around.
Imogen Mould, who graduated from Newcastle University last year, voting in Gateshead, on the south bank of the Tyne, admitted she “didn’t really know who the PCC candidates were” before polling day, except that “the Labour candidate for mayor used to be the PCC”.
She added: “I’ve found it hard to find information about different candidates’ po