Former MP Claire Ward chosen as Labour candidate for East Midlands mayor

Former Labour MP Claire Ward has been selected as the party’s candidate for the first East Midlands mayoral election, due to take place in May next year.

Ward was confirmed as the candidate on Thursday following a ballot of members in the region. In a tweet following the result, the former MP for Watford said she was “humbled to gain the support of members across our East Midlands Labour Party”.

“Now the hard work begins to beat the Tories! Let’s bring prosperity and opportunity to every corner of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire,” she said.

According to NottinghamshireLive, Ward won selection with 50.3% of the vote ahead of former Nottinghamshire police and crime commissioner and ex-MP for Sherwood Paddy Tipping on 34% of the vote and the BBC’s former East Midlands political editor John Hess on 15.4%.

Ward represented Watford in Hertfordshire in parliament from 1997 to 2010. During her time as an MP, she held various roles, including serving as justice minister from June 2009 to May 2010.

Since leaving parliament, she has worked in a number of executive and non-executive roles in the community pharmacy sector, as well as serving as the chief executive of the Institute for Collaborative Working. She was appointed to the board of governors of the University of Hertfordshire in 2018.

She currently serves as chair of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, having been appointed in October 2021. She previously served as interim chair from April that year and has been a member of the Trust board since 2013.

Ward also works for the Pharmacists Defence Association, a not-for-profit organisation that supports the needs of pharmacists. She has lived in Nottinghamshire for more than decade.

Ward set out several pledges during her selection campaign including increasing the number of affordable homes across the region, establishing a green growth fund to create thousands of new green jobs and delivering an integrated transport system that is affordable and reliable.

Ward’s campaign backers included Derby South MP Margaret Beckett, former MPs Jacqui Smith and Kevin Barron, West of England mayor Dan Norris and Derby City Council deputy leader Nadine Peatfield. Her candidacy was also backed by the Co-operative Party, ASLEF, the CWU, UNISON and Community.

The devolution deal for the East Midlands that would create the new mayoralty was backed by county and city councils in the region earlier this year, with a final version of the proposal subsequently submitted to government, according to the Local Government Chronicle.

The deal requires the levelling up and regeneration bill – which is currently at report stage in the House of Lords – to have passed into law.

According to the LGC, the deal will then return to the local councils in autumn for a decision before returning to the government for the final stage of the process. The first mayoral elections would take place in May 2024 if that timetable is met.