Brabin becomes Labour’s West Yorksire mayoral candidate
Tracy Brabin, the MP for Batley and Spen has been selected as the Labour party candidate for the 2021 West Yorkshire mayoral election.
The former actor who became an MP in 2016 after the by-election in Batley and Spen following the death of Jo Cox, has confirmed she will be standing down from her current role in order to focus on the new role and be a full time metro mayor.
She was selected after receiving a larger share of the party votes than her rivals for the role, Bradford City Council leader Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe and lawyer Hugh Goulbourne.
In her campaign Brabin said her priorities would be, “protecting and creating good, well paid jobs – including in the growing entertainment industry which is already starting to flourish in the region, alongside the green economy; safer streets and community policing; expanding clean and green transport, including a mass transit system for the region and ensuring a fair recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Speaking after being named the party’s candidate she said: “We’ve seen this year, more than any other, how much it matters who we elect.
“We need a mayor who is going to get West Yorkshire our fair share when it comes to funding, jobs, transport and a recovery from the pandemic. There’s a big north/south divide in this country and we deserve better that to be treated as second class citizens.
“There’s a big job to do in rebuilding our economy in a post-Covid-19 world, my job will be to make sure that what comes next is fair and delivers the jobs, skills and opportunities people in our cities, towns, villages and former mining communities deserve.”
The first mayoral election for West Yorkshire will take place on 6 May. Brabin is so far the favourite to become the first metro mayor for the region and would become the first female metro mayor in England, should she win the vote.
Currently the other candidates include Andrew Cooper the leader of the Green Party on Kirklees Council and Bob Buxton of the Yorkshire Party, however no Conservative party candidate has yet been declared.
