Mike Wolfe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.^{[citation needed]}

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 the mayoral race of October 2002. He narrowly beat George Stevenson, a local Labour member of Parliament. Despite Stoke being an industrial working class city, both Wolfe and his successor Mark Meredith are openly gay.^[1]

Labour gained the position of elected mayor in the May 2005 election.