Jamie Driscoll, the former Labour metro mayor for North of Tyne who later played a role setting up Your Party, has joined the Greens, the party has announced.
It comes two days after five Labour councillors in the north London borough of Brent defected to the Greens, saying they were disillusioned about the party’s direction under Keir Starmer.
Driscoll, a former Newcastle councillor who served as mayor from 2019 to 2024, left Labour in 2023 after the party blocked him from running again. He stood as an independent, coming second to Labour’s Kim McGuinness.
Driscoll was later involved in efforts to set up a new leftwing party in association with the former Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, which eventually became Your Party. He ended his involvement in the project after it became mired in disputes and infighting.
In a statement, Driscoll said he had joined the Greens “because I see an organisation that’s serious about running our country in the long-term interests of all our people”.