JAMIE DRISCOLL said today that the public are “sick of the political status quo” after raising more than £150,000 to power his election campaign to become North East mayor.

The independent North of Tyne Mayor quit Labour last summer after it blocked him from running in May’s election.

Speaking as he launched his new campaign video, he said: “I’ve been blown away by the support my campaign has received.

“People are sick of the political status quo. This fundraising drive has proven that people are hungry for change.”

His campaign had raised more than £142,000 from over 6,200 individual donors on his GoFundMe page as of today, alongside an additional £20,000 from offline donations. 

He added: “This campaign is building by the day, because people from across the political spectrum are sick of divisive and performative politics.

“Most sensible people just want their politicians to tell the truth, work together and get the job done. That has always been my approach.”

Mr Driscoll’s North of Tyne mayoral constituency will disappear in May when a larger constituency, the North East, is created.

He launched his election campaign last month, telling a packed community hall in Sunderland: “What if — it’s a general election year — Keir Starmer says, ‘Here’s my 10 pledges.’ Would you trust him to keep them?

“The day I left the Labour Party was the day Labour said they would adopt the Conservative policy of the two-child benefit cap — a policy that plunged 250,000 kids into poverty at a stroke.

“And all those Labour frontbenchers — and Labour mayoral candidates — who’d said that policy was ‘heinous’ and ‘cruel’ changed their tune, and said, ‘Ah, well, you know, public finances,’ and meekly swallowed the party line that it’s OK to keep children in poverty.”