Former Labour mayor Jamie Driscoll has joined the Green Party.

Driscoll, who served five years as the elected North of Tyne mayor, described politics in Britain as “a mess” and said the party he has joined, led by Zack Polanski, was “serious about running our country in the long-term interests of all our people”.

Originally elected for Labour in 2019, he quit the party and ran as an independent in the 2024 North East mayoral election in which he finished second to Kim McGuinness, having raised more than £150,000 in donations for his campaign.

Polanski described Driscoll as having “a proven track record” but a Labour spokesperson dismissed him as a “political liability”.

Driscoll, a former Newcastle councillor, had previously set up his own party, Majority, and spoke of his desire for a “progressive alliance” to become a force in the city, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The Greens won their first seats on Newcastle City Council last year and currently have four councillors.

The former mayor confirmed he would stand in the city’s local elections and as an MP if selected in the future.

He said: “We have all-out elections in May [in Newcastle]. In 2029, who knows what will happen?

“Labour have clearly collapsed. The shine is coming off Reform.”

Driscoll added British politics was a “mess and it’s not the fault of immigrants”.

“Our economy isn’t working for workers, it isn’t working for small businesses.”

Polanski said of his new recruit: “This is another example of the Green surge sweeping across the country.

“Jamie is a well-known political figure with a proven track record of delivering real change to people’s lives.”

Driscoll has recently been embroiled in rows surrounding Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s left-wing Your Party movement.

He was one of the directors of a company which held more than £800,000 of supporters’ donations that Sultana was previously accused of withholding.

Driscoll and two other directors of MoU Operations Ltd resigned in October, claiming they had “behaved with integrity” while accusing the party of “factually incorrect claims”.

Asked why he had not joined Your Party, he said: “I wish them luck, but they are a way away from being ready.”

A Labour spokesperson said: “Jamie Driscoll is a political liability.

“From Independent, to Majority, a significant part of the founding of Your Party and now the Greens, all in the last year and a half.”