Full list of candidates in Newcastle for May 2 local elections

Voters in Newcastle are going to the polls this week in a big election day in the North East.

As well as local elections across Tyne and Wear, there is the historic North East mayoral election, and police and crime commissioner elections too.

Labour is bidding to retain its control of Newcastle City Council, but opposition parties are pushing hard in a series of swing wards to deal a blow to the ruling group.
And with the city’s council leader facing an internal leadership challenge in the days after the elections, it should make for an intriguing watch as the results come in after 10pm on May 2.

Here is everything you need to know about what’s happening in Newcastle ahead of polling day.
 
How many councillors are up for election?
There are 27 seats on Newcastle City Council up for grabs this year – one for each of the city’s 26 wards, plus an extra in Fawdon and West Gosforth following the recent death of former lord mayor Brenda Hindmarsh.
 
What is the current makeup of the council?
Labour has been in power in Newcastle since 2011, when it won back control from the Liberal Democrats, and has a majority of the council’s 78 seats.
As things stand, Labour has 47 seats and the Liberal Democrats are the main opposition with 22. The Newcastle Independents party has three seats, there are four further independents, and two vacancies (one formerly held by the Lib Dems and one by the Newcastle Independents).
Of the 27 seats being contested this year, 17 are being defended by Labour, seven by the Lib Dems, two from the Newcastle Independents, and one independent. 
 
Who is the leader of the council?
Nick Kemp has been leader of the council and the city’s Labour group for the last two years. He rose to power after former long-serving leader Nick Forbes was deselected by Labour members in his Arthur’s Hill ward in 2022.

It has emerged that he is, for the second year running, facing a challenge to his leadership from within the party – with outer west councillor Dan Greenhough due to contest an internal election battle with him in May.

Coun Kemp’s time in office so far has seen Labour decide to scrap Your Homes Newcastle and bring the city’s council housing back under the control of the civic centre, while he has also overseen the long-awaited start of works to restore the Tyne Bridge and the contentious introduction and then removal of various low traffic neighbourhoods around the city.

And, as has been the case for more than a decade now, the council has continued to make significant budget cuts amid a funding crisis across local government – the most controversial of which this year was a plan, now paused, to slash funding for homelessness services.

Coun Kemp told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that his administration was focused on being “resident and citizen focused” and that he was proud of its financial record at a time when other town halls are going bust.
He added: “We introduced the first inclusive economic strategy, the first anti-poverty strategy and are developing a movement strategy. 
“We have been successful in introducing the real living wage, delivered an innovative response to the cost of living crisis with hubs across the city, and delivered out the full proportion of the household support fund ensuring we are supporting our communities across the city.”
 
Which seats are being fought over?
There are a handful of genuine swing wards in Newcastle that tend to catch the attention every year.
One of those is Ouseburn, always a tight fight between Labour and the Lib Dems that was decided by just 12 votes a few years ago.

Labour’s Alistair Chisholm is defending his seat this year and the opposition are hoping to get Fiona Punchard elected to gain 100% control of the ward. 
Once again, the council’s stance on Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) is looking set to be a major campaign issue. 

The recent controversy over the removal of the Heaton LTN has got Labour into hot water with a chunk of residents who were supportive of the traffic-cutting trial and could play into the Lib Dems’ hands.
The opposition party also hopes to take total control over the North Jesmond ward too, where acrimony still very much lingers over the Jesmond LTN debacle that was the source of so much debate and division over the past year.

West Fenham was another seat that turned from red to yellow last year, so Labour’s Ian Tokell will be hoping that he can hang on there as he defends his place on the council.
Lib Dem leader Colin Ferguson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he felt his party had “a lot of positive prospects”.

He said that the council’s Labour administration had managed to “annoy pretty much every side of the debate on low traffic neighbourhoods”, having provoked anger from both backers and opponents of the schemes around the city. He accused Labour of “not engaging and listening to communities”

The outer west of Newcastle has also been a key election battleground over recent years, with the rise of the locally-focused Newcastle Independents.
After a difficult period for the party following the death of its founder, Jason Smith, from pancreatic cancer last year, new leader Tracey Mitchell is hoping to defend her Denton and Westerhope seat and also hold the Lemington seat that Mr Smith represented.

She said: “That is the hope. It is always difficult for us to gauge how it is going to go because we don’t have the same resources as the big parties.”
Coun Mitchell said the key issues in the outer west were about basic services – including repairs needed to council homes, fly-tipping, and grass cutting.
 
Anything else to watch out for on election night?
Conservative hopes of winning an election in Newcastle for the first time since 1992 rest once again on the shoulders of Doc Anand, who has been campaigning hard for the last few years in his battle in the Lib Dem stronghold of Gosforth.

Having been backed by former Newcastle United owner Sir John Hall, the well-known former GP believes this can finally be his year – and that he can buck his party’s national trend and “show people that what happens in London and in Newcastle is completely different”.

He said: “When you look at the results, more people are backing me year on year. It feels to me like people have been more vocal this year – there are more people stopping me in the street to say they will vote for me.”

Also hoping for a breakthrough is the Green Party, who have never managed to get a councillor elected in the city.

Byker candidate Nick Hartley believes he can produce what would be a statement win in a Labour heartland, believing that voters around Newcastle “are looking to us as a consistent voice on air pollution and supporting active travel”.

He added: “There’s definitely more of a buzz around the Green Party this year across Newcastle and Gateshead.

"Here in Byker, I’ve had a growing number of Labour supporters contact me to say they are voting for me and the Green Party this time. They can see how close the election was last time between me and Labour. I’ve increasingly been contacted by residents in the ward this year asking for help, and I’ve enjoyed bringing in the expertise of our party members to help get things done – from tackling disputes with landlords, clearing litter and bringing the community together at public events to explore local responses to concerns about antisocial behaviour.”

It is also worth noting that Newcastle’s politicians have half an eye on the next local council elections in 2026 – when the national political picture could look quite different and, after boundary changes are confirmed, every seat on the council will be up for grabs.
Opposition parties will see that as their big opportunity to potentially wrest control from Labour, as happened when the Lib Dems won control at the all-out elections in 2004.
 
Here is the full list of candidates standing in Newcastle in the 2024 local elections:
 
Arthur’s Hill
Alistair Ford (Green)
Christopher Howden (Liberal Democrat)
Maria Manco (Conservative)
Stephen Powers (Labour)
Rowshon Uddin (Independent)
 
Benwell and Scotswood
Hans Christian Andersen (Liberal Democrat)
Rob Higgins (Labour)
Lee Irving (Green)
David McGovern (Independent)
Ronald Thompson (Conservative)
 
Blakelaw
Thomas Lian-Hoare (Conservative)
James Milne (Green)
Bill Shepherd (Liberal Democrat)
Marion Williams (Labour)
 
Byker 
Jamie Hampton (Conservative)
Nick Hartley (Green)
Mark Ridyard (Liberal Democrat)
Carly Walker-Dawson (Labour)
 
Callerton and Throckley 
Alexis Fernandes (Conservative)
Idwal John (Green)
Richard Morris (Liberal Democrat)
Linda Wright (Labour)
 
Castle
Daniel Burnett (Conservative)
Andrew Herridge (Labour)
Jamie Robinson (Liberal Democrat)
Andrew Thorp (Green)
 
Chapel
Philip Brookes (Green)
Ian Forster (Conservative)
Lawrence Hunter (Independent)
Bill Purvis (Labour)
Judith Steen (Liberal Democrat)
 
Dene and South Gosforth
Hilary Franks (Labour)
Gerry Langley (Conservative)
Karen Robinson (Liberal Democrat)
Laurence Taylor (Green)
 
Denton and Westerhope
Vince Barry-Stanners (Labour)
Elizabeth Dicken (Liberal Democrat)
Jack Luke (Conservative)
Tracey Mitchell (Newcastle Independents)
William Whitaker (Green)
 
Elswick
Hamed Aghajani (Liberal Democrat)
Tom Horgan Davison (Conservative)
Nicu Ion (Labour)
Khaled Musharraf (Green)
 
Fawdon and West Gosforth (two vacancies)
Rob Austin (Liberal Democrat)
John Hall (Liberal Democrat)
Alexander McMullen (Conservative)
Maria Piazza (Conservative)
Asad Syed (Labour)
Gordana Vasic (Labour)
Roger Whittaker (Green)
 
Gosforth
Doc Anand (Conservative)
Michael Bell (Labour)
Frances Hinton (Green)
Brian Moore (North East Party)
Tahir Siddique (Liberal Democrat)
 
Heaton
Tom Appleby (Liberal Democrat)
Chandni Chopra (Independent)
John Dobie (Conservative)
Andrew Gray (Green)
Steve Handford (Communist Party)
Clare Penny-Evans (Labour)
 
Kenton
Craig Austin (Liberal Democrat)
Nick Fray (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition)
Adam Jackson (Green)
Stephen Lambert (Labour)
Zak Mudie (Conservative)
 
Kingston Park South and Newbiggin Hall 
Alexander Hay (Labour)
Amy Laverick (Conservative)
Tahir Mahmood (Green)
David Partington (Liberal Democrat)
 
Lemington
Stephen Barry-Stanners (Labour)
Tracy Connell (Liberal Democrat)
Jack Donaldson (Conservative)
Pat McGee (Green)
Zoey Saul (Newcastle Independents)
 
Manor Park
Bradley Aird (Labour)
Antonio Manco (Conservative)
Mike Rabley (Green)
Greg Stone (Liberal Democrat)
 
Monument
Nabeela Ali (Labour)
Craig Dodd (Liberal Democrat)
Richard Sanderson (Conservative)
Jessica Whitaker (Green)
 
North Jesmond
James Coles (Liberal Democrat)
Stephen Davies (Conservative)
Killian McCartney (Labour)
Shehla Naqvi (Green)
 
Ouseburn
Alistair Chisholm (Labour)
Gabriella Leavitt (Green)
Fiona Punchard (Liberal Democrat)
Marie Summersby (Conservative)
 
Parklands
Pauline Allen (Liberal Democrat)
Christopher Bartlett (Labour)
Andrew Burnett (Conservative)
Audrey Macnaughton (Green)
 
South Jesmond
Milo Barnett (Labour)
Martin Evison (Social Democratic Party)
Aidan King (Liberal Democrat)
Jennifer Mills (Conservative)
Sarah Peters (Green)
 
Walker
Stephen Psallidas (Liberal Democrat)
Alex Walker (Conservative)
Matt Williams (Green)
David Wood (Labour)
 
Walkergate
Maureen Lowson (Labour)
Margaret Montgomery (Green)
Matthew Osbourn (Liberal Democrat)
Stephen Oxborough (Conservative)
 

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West Fenham
Syed Ahmed (Conservative)
Tim Dowson (Green)
Mark Mitchell (Liberal Democrat)
Ian Tokell (Labour)
 
Wingrove
Irim Ali (Labour)
Younes Mohammed (Independent)
John Pearson (Green)
Jarred Riley (Conservative)
Colin Steen (Liberal Democrat)