Batley & Spen MP on Labour shortlist for West Yorkshire mayor

The shortlist announced by the party also included Bradford council leader Susan Hinchcliffe, and lawyer Hugh Goulbourne.

Whoever is chosen as Labour’s candidate will be favourite to win the mayoral election next May, despite the Conservatives’ success in West Yorkshire in December’s General Election.

Ms Brabin, a former Coronation Street actor who served in Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet, said her ‘immediate priority will be to build on work underway already to establish a Job Creation Taskforce to create good, unionised jobs and retraining opportunities’.

She has been endorsed by Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker, who described her as ‘a beacon of real and exciting change’.

The mayoral election will take place in May next year and whoever is elected will gain control over a host of budgets and powers previously held by central government.

There will now be a campaign and hustings period, with the ballot opening on November 23 and closing midday on December 11.