THE fight to become the first North East mayor is hotting up – with two bitter rivals for the top job attacking each other’s records in office.

Two weeks before voters go to the polls to choose a new mayor who will represent two million people across Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Northumberland, tensions have boiled over between two of the leading candidates.

Independent candidate Jamie Driscoll released a campaign video on Tuesday (April 16) questioning whether crime was “out of control” in the North East under Labour rival Kim McGuinness’ watch as the sitting Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).

There is little love lost between the pair, who had been due to battle it out for Labour’s nomination for the mayoral post before the party barred Mr Driscoll from standing in the contest last summer – after which he quit to become an independent. 

READ MORE: Upcoming North East mayoral election explained

Ms McGuinness has hit back by questioning Mr Driscoll’s claim that he has created more than 5,000 jobs in his current role as the North of Tyne mayor and accused him of “hiding behind misleading statistics”.

The confrontational turn this week marks something of a shift in tone for the election campaign as polling day draws ever closer, with previous public debates between the candidates having been largely well-behaved affairs.

Also standing in the May 2 election are Conservative Guy Renner-Thompson, Liberal Democrat Aidan King, Reform UK’s Paul Donaghy, and the Green Party’s Andrew Gray.

In a video released on X on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Driscoll’s campaign pointed out that knife crime in the Northumbria Police force area had jumped 43 per cent since 2019 – compared to an overall drop across England as a whole.

The ad also took aim at rises in a variety of other offences including robbery and shoplifting, while criticising Ms McGuinness’ decisions to impose multiple council tax rises during her time in office.

During a BBC debate on Wednesday morning (April 17)  in which Mr Driscoll twice took aim at her over rising crime rates, Ms McGuinness also questioned his claim to have delivered 5,377 new jobs in the North of Tyne – saying that “most of those jobs are still in the pipeline” and 1,000 were “already there before he was elected”.

Mr Driscoll, who confidently predicted causing a “big upset” on May 2 in an interview with Politics Home this week, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he was “standing on my record as mayor and welcome scrutiny”. 

He added: “People will ask the question – why is crime rising so fast here compared to the rest of the country? Northumbria police budget has risen 35 per cent from £280m to £380m. That’s more than inflation. What are we getting for it? Knife crime up 43 per cent here, but down 7 per cent across England. It’s all published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). People can check it themselves.”

Ms McGuinness accused her opponent of “running negative campaigns and hiding behind misleading statistics”.

She said: “If we want to talk about records then the facts speak for themselves. Crime is down 3.5 per cent since I became PCC, we’ve seen the biggest increase in neighbourhood policing in the force’s history and we’ve worked with victims' families to talk to over 100,000 young people on the dangers of knife crime, in the face of cuts from central Government.

“Jamie meanwhile is trying to take credit for a railway line opening up in Northumberland but actually 50 per cent of its stations will not be open this year, it’s delayed and over budget – that’s failing the people of North Tyneside and Northumberland.

“And he repeatedly over-inflates his job figures by including thousands of jobs that simply do not yet exist. He knows the total number of people actually in a job today under his watch is less than half the figure he claims.”