LABOUR saw off a strong challenge from independent left candidate Jamie Driscoll to win the new North East regional mayoralty.

Kim McGuiness secured the post with slim majorities in all areas of the region’s largest city, Newcastle.

She won 185,051 votes to Mr Driscoll’s 126,652, or 41 per cent to 28 per cent, with the Tories a distant third.

Mr Driscoll has been serving as mayor for the North of Tyne area, now subsumed in the larger post. 

He was prevented from seeking the Labour nomination by the party leadership.

“This was a people-powered campaign and it doesn’t die with just one election result,” he said.

“There is a huge appetite for pragmatic transformative policies that reduce inequality and treat people with respect. 

“We are building a movement and we’re staying right here,” he pledged.

Further south, Tory Ben Houchen was re-elected to a third term as Tees Valley mayor, with a near-17 per cent swing to Labour insufficient to overturn his monumental majority.

Mr Houchen secured 54 per cent of the vote to Labour’s 41 per cent, despite heavy criticism for his handling of public money concerning the redevelopment of the former Redcar steelworks site.

Mr Houchen was notably discreet about his Conservative affiliations during the campaign, and today pledged to work with a Labour prime minister if needs be.

“Keir Starmer’s saying he’s going to give us more money and more powers, which gives me more autonomy to get on and do what I do best, which is deliver for local people,” he said.

Another shy Tory, West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, was also set for re-election, although his result will not be confirmed until the weekend.

Racist Labour sources lashed out at Muslims for the result, saying “Street will win due to the Middle East, not because of his success in the West Midlands,” adding: “Once again Hamas are the real villains.”

This was an Islamophobic reading — since disowned by the party nationally — of the fact that many voters, dismayed at Keir Starmer’s stance on Gaza abandoned Labour, preferring independent candidate Akhmed Yakoob, backed by George Galloway’s Workers Party.

But Labour claimed a comfortable victory for the new mayoralty in the East Midlands, with its candidate Claire Ward seeing off hard-right Tory MP Ben Bradley in the region, which encompasses Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Other mayoral results, including in London, will be declared tomorrow.