TRACY Brabin has been chosen as Labour's West Yorkshire Mayor candidate ahead of next May's election.

Labour members in the county have been casting their votes in recent weeks, and Batley and Spen MP Tracy Brabin has beaten off stiff competition from Bradford Council leader and leader of West Yorkshire Combined Authority Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe and Hugh Goulbourne to win the nomination.

She will go up against the Green Party's Andrew Cooper and the Yorkshire Party's Bob Buxton at the election next May.

The candidates for the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and any other political parties have yet to be announced.

Ms Brabin, has been MP for Batley and Spen since 2016, and previously served as Shadow Minister for Early Years and briefly as Shadow Culture Secretary earlier this year, before being moved to the role of Minister for Cultural Industries.

She said: “I’m Yorkshire through and through, so this is a huge honour.

"I’m incredibly proud to be Labour’s mayoral candidate because it means representing the people I grew up with and the communities I grew up in to try and make a real and practical difference to their day to day lives. 

“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 West Yorkshire devolution deal was signed in March this year between West Yorkshire Combined Authority and the Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

The role will include handling an annual budget of £38 million, and control over public transport, housing, land and education and training for adults.

In 2024, it will also take over the role of the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, and work in a similar way to the existing mayor positions in London and Greater Manchester.