Monkey joke mayor voted into world's top ten

A football mascot-turned-elected mayor who admitted he only stood as a joke has been named in the world's top ten.

Stuart Drummond, the mayor of Hartlepool, rocked the established political parties when he stood in his home town as H'Angus the monkey and won in 2002.

Since then he has dumped the monkey suit, been re-elected twice and beaten Boris Johnson and predecessor Ken Livingstone to become the first UK politician to be shortlisted in the World Mayor Competition.

The judges sifted through nominations to draw up a shortlist of 25, then whittled them down to a top ten. Mr Drummond came tenth. Marcelo Ebrard, civic leader of Mexico City, came first.

Mr Drummond said: "I didn't stand as a protest in the beginning, I wasn't politically-minded enough to protest against the other candidates. It was just a bit of a joke, to be honest.

"I will always be associated with H'Angus but the first time I was re-elected it was with a majority of 11,000, so I had obviously done something right."

In the eight years since he was elected, Mr Drummond said the town in north-east England had undergone regeneration. A million visitors came to see the tall ships during their stay in the harbour this summer, which brought in 27 million to the local economy.

"I have been fortunate enough to be at the helm during a decade of regeneration and improvement," he said.

Despite the top ten accolade, Mr Drummond is not complacent about his future.

"The longer you are in a post, the more unpopular you become," he said.

One local, who nominated the ex-monkey, said: "He came to power on a self-deprecating campaign as our football team's mascot, but in office has conducted himself in a manner which shows how much he respects the people he is so proud to represent."