Top Northumberland councillor joins race to become Tories' North East mayoral candidate; Coun Guy Renner Thompson is currently Northumberland's cabinet member for children's services.
Byline: By, James Robinson
A Northumberland County Council cabinet member has entered the race to become the Conservative candidate for next year's North East mayoral election.
Coun Guy Renner Thompson, who represents the Bamburgh ward, joins Sedgefield MP Paul Howell on the list to be the Tory opposition to Labour's Kim McGuinness. The sitting North of Tyne Mayor, Jamie Driscoll, also plans to run as an independent after explosively quitting Labour in the summer after he was barred from the party's selection process.
Coun Renner Thompson is Northumberland's cabinet member for children's services and has served on the council since 2017. He was previously a parish councillor from 2014.
The regional mayor role is being created under a new £4.2bn devolution deal for the North East, which is due to be ratified in the next few months and will bring with it new funding and decision-making powers. The new mayor will represent around two million people from Berwick to Barnard Castle, encompassing all of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Coun Renner Thompson said he felt the job was "perfect" for him. He had been considering running as an MP, before deciding he did not want to live his native North East.
He said: "I have taken the decision that my heart lies in the North East. I don't want to move away to get a seat in parliament.
"This is the perfect job for me. I'm very passionate about the area. I've never left the North East -I was born in Newcastle and went to Newcastle University. I think that's an advantage -the North East is in my heart."
Coun Renner Thompson pointed to his successes at the helm of education in Northumberland, which has seen 94% of schools rated as good or outstanding by education watchdog Ofsted -four per cent above the national average and a significant improvement since the Conservative administration came to office in 2017.
He continued: "I've seen what we have been able to do with the county council looking at our improvements in education and I would like the opportunity to do good work on a wider scale.
"People talk about the big ticket items, but the proudest moments I have as a councillor are when I can help individual people. The big thing for me is helping people with housing.
"In my area, people have been evicted to make way for...
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