‘People need hope’: Greens court voters in battle for north-east council seats | Local elections 2026

“TThank you so much to all the penguins who huddled together for warmth,” Jamie Driscoll told a dozen supporters who braved the freezing cold and stormy weather to start knocking on doors and handing out fliers.

The former Labor mayor of the Tyne is one of the most high-profile members of the Green party. Standing on behalf of Newcastle city council in the central Monument precinct, he was giving a pep talk to a group that would probably have been even larger had he not been in London for a demonstration against the far-right, some of whom were present.

Driscoll is running for election to a minority-ruled council led by the Labor Party. The Greens, Liberal Democrats and Reform expect a good performance. Labor, meanwhile, will remember last year’s events in County Durham, once a rock-solid stronghold that was nearly destroyed by Reformation.

What happens in the north-east of England could be very important for Keir Starmer. When Labor lost the Hartlepool by-election in 2021, the party was humiliated and on the verge of quitting. If Labor loses heavily in four full council elections in Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and South Tyneside, there will be people expecting him to do more than consider resigning.

Like some of the campaigners who rallied in the cold for the Greens on Saturday, Driscoll has been a Labor supporter all his life. Maysie Sharp, a retired stilt walker, said she had always voted Labor, except when she voted Liberal Democrats as a protest against the council.

He joined the party just before Jeremy Corbyn became leader and remained a member through Starmer’s early years, but began to become disillusioned with a number of policies, including Gaza.

“I don’t remember what the last straw was, but it was something like that,” he said. “I joined the Greens because I think people need hope. The Greens seem to have a plan. I’m 75, I have grandchildren and I want there to be a world for my grandchildren too.”

Another recent switch from Labor to Green, Richie Barlow, 44, said: “I’ve been very supportive of Keir Starmer, very supportive but he’s basically a red Tory. He’s completely abandoned the people who voted for him, he’s not breaking his promise. We need a viable alternative to the two-party status quo.”

This message is, of course, the message put forward by the Reformation. During the campaign, the Greens are trying to convince people that they are the only party that can keep Reform out. Labor will say the same thing. This raises the question: What are left-leaning, anti-Reform voters supposed to do?

This is a dilemma for Maureen Gilmore, a 77-year-old retired parole officer who gets a knock on her door from Driscoll. The gist of their speech will likely be repeated on many doorsteps ahead of the May 7 elections:

Gilmore: “It’s difficult for me because I’m a member of the Labor Party, a member of the Labor Party. I don’t mind Keir Starmer, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t like what he’s doing to some people in the Labor Party.”

Driscoll: “Yeah, yeah, I’ve been through that.”

Gilmore: “Yes. I thought there were some good people. They could be excellent. And I worry a lot about the Reformation. I mean, I don’t think they’ll ever come to power, but they could do harm.”

Campaigner: “Not if we don’t have anything to do about it.”

Driscoll: “Now it’s a Green vs. Reformation battle in Newcastle.”

Gilmore: “Really? Anyway, I’ll vote for you.”

After a while, Driscoll says to Gilmore, who is still unsure:[Labour] I left you, Maureen. “You didn’t abandon them.”

The campaign took place on the leafy streets of Newcastle – so perhaps it shouldn’t be taken too seriously – but it was notable that many of the residents who voted Labor said they would vote Green.

A young woman assured Driscoll that she would vote Green, barking happily and running around the politician’s legs, just like Teddy the Pomeranian. A middle-aged man later told Driscoll that he was undecided between the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, but thought the Liberal Democrats were better defensively.

Driscoll told him that his father was a tank driver and his brother was in the Royal Navy, and then argued that the problem was that war had changed and that “the current defense system exists to serve defense contractors rather than the needs of service personnel.”

One pub resident told Driscoll that he supported Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain party – “He said the Reformation was too left-wing for him” – while the campaigners were cheerful and jovial. The wind died down and even the sun came out.

Driscoll described his history with Labor, the disastrous falling out, and his hopes for his new party. Driscoll, a former engineer, software developer, martial arts instructor and nightclub bouncer, said he and his brother joined the Labor Party in 1985 “after seeing a funny enough party political broadcast with Roy Hattersley”.

Driscoll was 15 and is now in his mid-50s, meaning he has four decades as a Labor member. He was repeatedly called a Corbynista but insisted he was never a tribalist. But he was never a Blairite and remembers a time when Labor was more tolerant of a wide range of views.

He said: “You had Robin Cook resign over the Iraq war, Clare Short resigned over the Iraq war. What they did was tell the truth. That’s how I’ve always made my decisions… I’ve never had any tribal allegiance.”

After five years as Labour’s mayor of North Tyne, he has been blocked from becoming the party’s candidate for the new North East mayoralty. One of the reasons given at the time was that he shared a platform with film director Ken Loach. Labour’s former shadow chancellor John McDonnell blamed “out of control” factionalism among party leaders.

Driscoll left the party and ran as an independent in the 2024 regional mayoral elections. He won 28 per cent of the vote but lost to Kim McGuinness for Labour, who received 41 per cent.

After this, Driscoll founded an organization called the party, but he insisted that it was a social movement. It is called majority, “it was powered by human power” and existed to “reconstruct our democratic institutions to serve the interests of the majority.”

Driscoll later played a role in founding Your Party with Corbyn and Zarah Sultana but ended his involvement after the party became mired in disagreements and infighting.

He was announced as the new member of the Greens in December last year. Driscoll said the party needs to show that it is on the rise and can do a good job in power.

“We are an incredibly unstable country,” he said. “Our economic system isn’t working for most people. In public finance, most of the money is funneled into billionaires’ bank accounts, and until someone fixes that, we’re going to keep doing really hot politics.”

Driscoll thinks Labor was “mortally wounded”, while Reform “grew like mushrooms and they too collapsed”.

Following news that he had joined the Greens, a Labor Party spokesman dismissed Driscoll as a “political liability”.

Driscoll insists he holds no grudges. Asked how it felt not to be in the Labor Party, he said: “It’s nice to walk into a room and not worry about who’s going to stab you in the back.”