Mike Wolfe

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Mike Wolfe was the elected mayor of Stoke-on-Trent, England, from 2002, until coming fourth out of eight in his bid for re-election in May 2005 where a record 9,600 people defaced their ballot papers.

Wolfe was born in Yorkshire. After working in London and Shrewsbury he came to North Staffordshire in 1980, where he turned Stoke-on-Trent Citizens Advice Bureau into one of the most effective advice organisations in the UK. During that period Mike was also involved in a wide range of other voluntary organisations including North Staffordshire Racial Equality Council, Staffordshire Housing Association and,as the founder Chair, the North Staffordshire Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Community Forum. He was Vice Chair of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux for four years.

Wolfe was the driving force behind the campaign to bring in a system of having a directly-elected Mayor with a city manager for Stoke-on-Trent, and left the Labour Party to stand as an independent in Mayoral race of October 2002. He narrowly beat George Stevenson, a local Labour member of Parliament. Mike Wolfe was notable for being an openly gay leader, in an industrial working class city. Labour gained the position of Elected Mayor in the May 2005 election.