North East Mayor

Kim McGuinness, the North East Mayor, co-hosted the TechFirst AI skills programme launch in May 2026, partnering with DSIT and Liz Kendall to bring AI education to 30,000 pupils across North East England. She has also championed the North East AI Growth Zone designation, framing data centre and AI infrastructure investment as a route to skilled employment in a region with historically lower productivity than the UK average.

Kim McGuinness was elected as the first Mayor of the North East Mayoral Combined Authority in May 2024, representing Labour. The combined authority covers County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside, and Sunderland. Her mayoral REMIT includes transport, economic development, housing, and the North East Investment Zone. Before politics, McGuinness served as the Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria from 2019, giving her a law-enforcement and public-safety background that she has combined with an economic-development focus since taking the mayoral office.

McGuinness's co-sponsorship of TechFirst and support for the AI Growth Zone position her as one of the most active regional political figures in the UK Government's AI industrial strategy. Her Labour alignment gives her direct access to DSIT and the Treasury at a moment when both departments are driving AI investment northward as part of their levelling-up mandate.