Nottingham City Council's former deputy leader and the chair of an NHS trust are the latest to confirm they want to be the first ever East Midlands Mayor. Labour recently opened nominations for those wishing to be the party's candidate at the first election for East Midlands Mayor, which is due next May.
Those to have already launched campaigns to stand for Labour include Paddy Tipping, former Sherwood MP and Nottinghamshire's first Police and Crime Commissioner. John Hess, the BBC's former Political Editor for the East Midlands, was the first to officially confirm he would be standing.
Two more candidates have now come forward to be Labour's mayoral nominee - Adele Williams and Claire Ward. Adele Williams served as Nottingham City Council's deputy leader and portfolio holder for finance from 2022 until the local elections in May, when she narrowly lost the role to Audra Wynter.
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Prior to serving as deputy leader, Adele oversaw adult social care at Nottingham City Council and was first elected to the authority in 2019. Claire Ward currently serves as the Chair of the Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust, but was previously the Labour MP for Watford from 1997 until 2010.
During her time in Parliament, Claire held ministerial roles under the administrations of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Labour's final candidate is due to be confirmed by August, whilst the Conservative Party's candidate is set to be declared a month later.
The mayor will head up a new East Midlands Combined Authority, which is being given significant powers in areas ranging from housing to transport by Government. The authority, being funded to the tune of £1.14 billion over 30 years, is due to be officially up and running next May and will cover the entirety of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
In a statement launching her campaign, Adele Williams said: "This Government has never really understood the East Midlands and we haven't had a unified voice to fight for what we need and deserve. We have been held back by underinvestment and the Westminster way of asking us to bid for one-off pots of funding that should be ours by right.
"The devolution deal isn't what our region deserves, but with it we have opened a new channel for funding and opportunities that we need to make the most of – and fight for more. Through austerity, the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, people are losing hope, but our best days can be ahead of us."
Adele said her priorities as mayor would include a "fair transition" to the green economy, ensuring the process would have a "positive impact on household budgets." Other priorities would include convening a taskforce to build thousands of affordable green homes and making the East Midlands a real living wage region.
Announcing her candidacy, Claire Ward said in a statement: "Members across our region tell me we need a Labour Mayor who has experience, ambition and importantly, energy and enthusiasm to represent our shared Labour values. But Labour has to not only win, we have to deliver.
"I live here, I'm raising my family here and over the last decade I've taken leading roles in our NHS here. I have a commitment to ensure our next generation has hope, opportunities and skills to live a good life.
"As your Labour East Midlands Mayor I will bring my combined experience of politics, business and public sector service to champion our region, making Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire a better place to live, work and learn." Claire also said her priorities would include creating thousands of green jobs and creating a youth panel to ensure the voices of young people are heard.
Several Labour figures have already started publicly declaring which candidate they will be backing to stand for the party. They include Nottingham North's MP Alex Norris, who has backed Paddy Tipping.
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