He Proves Labour And Tories Aren't The Only Option - w/. Jamie Driscoll
The Owen Jones Podcast
Owen Jones
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 March 2024
⏱️ 17 minutes
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Summary
Jamie Driscoll should be Labour's dream candidate. He won his election for the North of Tyne Mayor, and was a hugely successful and popular leader. Then Keir Starmer's machine blocked him from standing as Mayor of the North East - why? Because he stands for a real alternative.
I had a chat with Jamie - who is being backed by new campaign group We Deserve Better - about leaving Labour, won't it just let the Tories win, about whether Starmer will be better in power - and if a genuine alternative can triumph.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi buddy, how you do? |
| 0:01.4 | Jamie. |
| 0:02.4 | Not so bad. |
| 0:03.4 | Good to see you. Nice to be in... |
| 0:04.4 | I was going to say sunny Newcastle. |
| 0:05.8 | Well, it's dark. |
| 0:06.8 | It's dark. |
| 0:07.8 | It's a beautiful city in Newcastle. |
| 0:09.8 | Always been a huge fan. |
| 0:10.8 | So I have quit the Labour Party myself. I joined the Labour Party now |
| 0:14.5 | is 15. That was not last year. I'm a geriatric millennial. I'm 39. It's kind of |
| 0:21.1 | weird. It's emotional, isn't it? Because you were in the Labour Party. |
| 0:25.0 | Yeah, I joined in 1985 when I was 15 at the tail end of the minor strike. |
| 0:30.0 | My mom had been in the Labour Party, I'd been a Labour Councillor, I'd been a Labour Mayor, |
| 0:35.8 | and despite having a fantastic record, they'd been trying to get rid of me for ages and so you're |
| 0:42.4 | not allowed to be the mayor of this new area |
| 0:44.4 | that you've negotiated this fantastic devolution deal for. So what happened let's talk about this? You were mayor elected what year? |
| 0:50.1 | 2019. Yeah covering Newcastle, North Tyneside, all the way up to Scotland and Berrics, a big area. |
| 0:56.0 | Huge. And when I was elected, I started negotiating with central government trying to bring in other councils to get a bigger area. |
| 1:02.0 | And I've got a devolution deal worth 6 billion |
| 1:04.6 | quid for transport. Yeah it's fair work it makes a difference. Best for under |
| 1:09.3 | deal in England and I've created over 5,000 jobs got 2,000 homes built on Brownfield land. |
... |
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