A NORTHERN mayor who was banned by Labour from standing for re-election has resigned from the party after making a blistering attack on its leadership.

North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll will stand against Labour as an independent for re-election to his job in May in a row which has already caused huge damage in the 22 Constituency Labour Parties in his North of Tyne district.

Some affiliated trade unions refused to take part in the selection of an alternative candidate from two imposed by the Labour Party’s national executive committee, which barred him from standing.

Mr Driscoll won respect as mayor for helping create thousands of jobs and was seen as being on the left of the party.

In a scathing resignation letter to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, he wrote: “Given you have barred me from running as North East mayor, despite being incumbent mayor, I have no other choice.

“In 2020 you told me to my face that you would ‘inspire people to come together … disciplining people to be united is going nowhere.’ You’ve broken that promise.

“You’ve U-turned on so many promises: £28 billion to tackle the climate emergency, free school meals, ending university tuition fees, reversing NHS privatisation; in fact, a list of broken promises too long to repeat in this letter.

“It is not grown-up politics to say Britain is broken and then claim things are now so difficult we will abandon any plan to fix it. That is mental gymnastics worthy of Olympic gold.”

Mr Driscoll has launched a £25,000 crowdfunder appeal to raise money for his election campaign next year. It had already smashed that target by thousands of pounds at the time the Morning Star went to print.

Labour’s refusal to let Mr Driscoll stand for re-election was reportedly linked to his sharing a platform with expelled member and film-maker Ken Loach.

But figures on the left of the party blamed “factionalism” under Sir Keir’s leadership.

In a statement Labour made no reference to Mr Driscoll’s exclusion as a candidate or his resignation.

When asked about a purge of members, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “We’ve always been a party that has people from all sorts of different views and perspectives and that needs to continue, that’s really important to who we are.”