Blow for Dan Jarvis as Labour rules he cannot be both Barnsley MP and South Yorkshire mayor
2 min read
Dan Jarvis will have to give up his Westminster seat if he becomes the mayor of South Yorkshire, Labour’s ruling body has declared.
As PoliticsHome revealed in January, the Labour MP is running to become the region’s first directly-elected mayor.
Mr Jarvis had planned to retain his parliamentary seat and use the platform to campaign for a wider devolution deal covering the whole of Yorkshire.
It was understood that he would then quit the Commons in order to run for the new beefed-up role.
However, Labour's national executive committee has ruled that MPs should not hold more than one full-time elected post at a time.
That means he would need to quit the Barnsley Central seat he has held since 2011.
Mr Jarvis is currently campaigning for Labour's nomination against Sheffield councillor Ben Curran, with the results of the contest to be announced this Friday.
The South Yorkshire mayoral election is then set to take place in May.
He previously said: "If my first act as mayor was to stand down as an MP, I’d be needlessly squandering my ability to inflict pressure on the Government through championing our cause in parliament.
"I take that responsibility extremely seriously and believe that not only is serving the people of Barnsley compatible with serving people across the region, but that the two roles are complimentary – the delivery of better infrastructure and public services will benefit everyone."
However, Mr Jarvis also insisted that he would that he would not take a mayoral salary while continuing in his role as MP.
Reacting to the NEC’s ruling today, former Barnsley East MP Michael Dugher dubbed the move “vindictive”.
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