Chris Cooke

Chris Cooke is a British Labour Party politician. Since May 2023, he has been the directly elected Mayor of Middlesbrough. By virtue of being Mayor of Middlesbrough, he is a member of the Tees Valley Combined Authority Board and the Cleveland Police and Crime Panel.

Early life

Cooke was born in 1990, and brought up in Teesville (Eston District), Redcar and Cleveland. . He grew up in care. He was educated at St Peter's Secondary School, a Catholic school in South Bank, Redcar and Cleveland.

After school, Cooke began an apprenticeship at Laurence Jackson School in Guisborough as an IT technician. He remained at the school after completing his apprenticeship. Some time after being elected a councillor in 2019, he left his IT job and became a community cohesion co-ordinator at Streets Ahead, a charitable help and advice centre in Middlesbrough.

Political career

On 2 May 2019, Cooke was elected as one of three councillors to represent the Newport Ward on Middlesbrough Council.

Mayor of Middlesbrough

On 4 May 2023, he was elected Mayor of Middlesbrough with 10,956 votes, defeating the incumbent Andy Preston by 760 votes.

Shortly after his election, Cooke expressed the need for a change of culture within Middlesbrough Council stating there to be “an adversarial culture between politicians and officers”.

Cooke vowed the council he leads would become "a service-led organisation", and that children's social care would get his full focus.

Personal life

Cooke is married to Julia Cooke, who serves a councillor on Middlesbrough Council. He is a Christian.