RE-ELECTED Mayor of Middlesbrough Ray Mallon has insisted that an expose involving secretly-taped phone conversations did not harm his mayoral election campaign.

He secured a third term in office, despite receiving only 50.4 per cent of the poll.

Two weeks ago he gave an embarrassing public apology for leaked comments made during a long-running row between Middlesbrough Council and the owner of Boro Cars, Mohammed Bashir, over the town’s taxi trade.

During the private chat, he swore and made a disparaging comment about one of his council officers.

But as re-elected Mayor of Middlesbrough, he said his victory was an endorsement for all he had helped achieve over the past four years.

“The public knows I am human and I am flawed,” he said. “Like everyone, no one is perfect.

“I do not use foul language as a matter of course, but when I was a policeman dealing with criminals or certain other people, I sometimes did.

“I do not think the tapes damaged me at all. When I learned that I had been recorded, to say that I was disappointed would be an understatement.

I had regarded Mohammed Bashir as a friend.”

Despite a nail-biting wait to find out if a second-preference count was needed, Mr Mallon (Independent) secured 17,917 votes, followed by Mike Carr (Labour) with 11,405, Chris Foote-Wood (Liberal Democrat) with 3,256 and Lloyd Cole- Nolan (Conservative) with 3,001.

Standing on the podium to make his acceptance speech at the Rainbow Leisure Centre, in Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough, yesterday, Mr Mallon said tackling the social deprivation which blighted the town was vital to Middlesbrough’s future.

Although defeated, Mr Carr was celebrating after nearly trebling the Labour vote from 3,529 in 2007.

“I am very pleased that we had such strong opposition.

Mr Mallon rightly won this event,” he said. “This town is full of proud, hardworking people and I am one of those people who is proud to represent the town whenever I get the opportunity.”

Mr Foote-Wood, who has stood for Parliament seven times, said he was disappointed, while Mr Cole-Nolan said he was delighted to have doubled the Conservative vote.

“Doing that has been absolutely fantastic and something to build on,” he said.

“Thank you to everybody, it has been great.”