Former Olympic boxer Luke Campbell looks back on the challenges, public expectations, and achievements of his inaugural year as the first Mayor of the Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Luke Campbell has reflected on his first year as the Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire. The former Olympic gold medallist boxer was elected as the first leader of the newly-created Combined Authority in May 2025.
After a successful career in both sport and business, in February 2025, Mr Campbell was announced as Reform UK’s candidate for the Hull and East Yorkshire Mayoral election. Welcoming him on stage at Hull’s Connexin Live at the time, Nigel Farage joked it was “the first time Luke’s been on stage without anybody punching him”.
Mr Campbell went on to win the election, held in the May of 2025, receiving 35.82 per cent of the vote. He finished more than 10,000 votes ahead of the second place candidate, the Liberal Democrat’s Mike Ross, who remains the leader of Hull City Council.
One year into life as a politician, Mr Campbell sat down with the LDRS to reflect on the past 12 months. In addition to Mr Campbell being new to politics, the role itself was also brand new. He described the first few weeks like “a moving car that you’ve just got to jump in as it’s moving then figure out how to drive it on the way”. He added:
“I’m learning every day in this role.”
‘The hardest challenge’
Mr Campbell said that the “hardest challenge” in his first year has been “the expectations of the general public.” He explained:
“In one breath people would be asking me where my chain and gowns are, when that’s a Lord Mayor, I’m not a Lord Mayor. And then in the second breath it’s ‘well what have you done?’, and this is day one on the job when I’ve just walked into an empty office. I don’t even know if we had a computer yet, and people were asking what I’ve done.”
‘Already ahead’
The Mayor said that at one-year old, the Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority (HEYCA) is “already ahead of where other combined authorities were in year one.” Mr Campbell added that HEYCA had a Growth Plan signed off by the Government within ten months, which he claims took some other combined authorities over a year and a half.
He added that the first year has been a “building block stage” ahead of year two which is “all about delivery”. Mr Campbell explained:
“If this was a private business we were setting up from scratch, we would could have done it in five months, but because it’s public and you’ve got to go around the roundabout several times and tick all these boxes, things do take longer in the public sector. It’s wrapped up a bit in red tape and bureaucracy.”
Proudest moment
Mr Campbell explained that he is most proud of his £1m Community Fund. The fund, which seeks to give cheques out to local community projects was announced in August 2025. “It’s had a real impact”, the Mayor said, adding:
“I’ve turned up and given cheques out to community organisations, charities, and I can see the work and the passion they are delivering into our communities.”
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