After losing the Beverley and Holderness seat by just 124 votes in the general election, Margaret Pinder says standing as Hull and East Yorkshire’s first elected mayor was the obvious next step.
The role of mayor was created as part of a devolution deal signed in September 2024, which will see powers over transport and housing and a £400mn long-term investment fund transferred to the Combined Mayoral Authority. Pinder believes this role would be more impactful than being MP, as it would allow her to focus on actively driving change on her home patch.
Born in Hull and later moving to the East Riding, Pinder’s roots stretch across the region. After training as a solicitor, her career has spanned work in international law, public sector procurement, and on major infrastructure projects. She says this has given her experience that is “arguably higher level than the two local council leaders”, referring to Councillors Mike Ross and Anne Handley, who are standing for the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives respectively.
Now, she wants to use her experience to take on the council leaders and the Reform UK Ltd candidate, former Olympic boxer Luke Campbell.
Challenging Reform and championing green jobs
For Pinder, the priority this election is to stop a Reform victory. She mentions that Campbell has spoken out in favour of taxing renewable energy and bringing oil and gas back to the region, despite admitting he knows little about local decarbonisation projects.
She argues that having a mayor who promotes green industries is crucial to making Hull and East Yorkshire the centrepiece of central government’s net zero plans. She warns that taxing investors from these industries could drive them away, weakening the region’s economic prospects.
“Reform want to put a windfall tax on the green industries. These are the industries that are going to regenerate the region. Promoting this sector is absolutely key to bringing in jobs and opportunities,” she points out.
Adding that such regeneration can’t happen in isolation, she mentions the division Reform has sown in the wake of last summer’s riots. Social cohesion, she stresses, is needed to improve economic prospects.
Building a bold identity for the region
One of her visions for the mayoral role is to create a strong regional identity for Hull and East Yorkshire.
“One thing we tend to feel here is that we’ve been left behind. There are so many exciting things that I think can be done once we buy into that sense of identity,” she says. “One great thing about this region is the sense of community spirit is really strong.”
She says boosting the creative industries will be important, both economically and socially. She recalls the sense of community spirit during the Hull City of Culture events and says this feeling should be tapped into again.
“A successful community is one where everyone feels they’re a part of it, and everyone has something within that community that they can have ownership of,” she says.
Reviving local communities with jobs, transport, and healthcare
Restoring a sense of community is built into all her policy proposals for the region, from transport to healthcare. While acknowledging that healthcare is not directly within the mayor’s remit, she suggests using planning powers to set up high street community clinics to help end the 8am scramble to see a doctor.
She has also pledged to introduce a mayoral apprenticeship scheme, which she says is only one element of a broader plan to bring jobs and opportunities to the region.
“Apprenticeships are great,” she says, “but there will also be business support and general help for people to learn skills, retrain, or set up a business later in life. The apprenticeship scheme is part of that bigger picture of enabling people to improve their economic prospects and self-reliance.”
To boost tourism and promote wellbeing, she proposes free summer bus services to the coast, connecting inland communities with seaside towns and reviving the tradition of the ‘Great British seaside holiday’. “Lots of children in Hull have never seen the sea. When I was growing up that was unthinkable,” she says.
Why Pinder believes a Labour mayor matters
With internal polls suggesting a tight race between Labour and Reform UK Ltd, Pinder argues that only a Labour mayor would have real influence with Westminster and other local decision-makers.
“I’m the person who’s best placed to actually act for Hull and the East Riding – to work with other Labour mayors, to work with the Labour government, and really bring to the mayoral seat what people in this region deserve,” she says.
The election will take place on 1 May 2025.
