Luke Campbell is the new Mayor for Hull
On Friday the 2nd of May 2025, it was confirmed that former Olympian and professional boxer Luke Campbell MBE had been elected as the first mayor for Hull in East Yorkshire for the new political party, Reform.
Having received 48,491 votes ahead of his closest rival in the election, Liberal Democrat Mike Ross, second with 37,510 votes, Campbell was reported as being humbled by the support of voters, vowing to earn their trust and respect, especially of his critics.
Now, just to be clear, I am no Reform supporter; I am probably the opposite. Having been at the other side of some of the debates with regards to Reform and their views, I am respectful of those people who feel that voting for Reform is necessary in order to get the change that they believe should be happening in this country at this time. And so, hopefully, dispassionately I may disagree with their choices but Yorkshire has spoken – and we should respectfully listen.
Campbell, because he has no political experience and does not want to become a Member of Parliament, is suggesting that this is a huge advantage to him going forward because it makes him more likely to listen to the people and work on their behalf than carry into his role an agenda which is likely to be hijacked and jinxed by the apparatchiks within any political party.
There is an appealing and refreshing element of that that clearly appealed to many over the last few days, weeks and months because now we are seeing the emergence of what could be classed as the politically naïve being given the opportunity to challenge and change that which they have been critical of for a long time.
Of course, boxers have a history of finding themselves as a political icon. You don’t have to go too far back to see when politicians were respectful of anyone with a sports pedigree due to their popularity.
It has led to massive movements like taking a knee which became a momentous movement after Colin Kaepernick did so. We think of the iconic Muhammad Ali who took a stand against the Vietnam War. His subsequent career is couched in terms of him being iconic simply because he stood up against authority and had that charm that allowed him to propose things that hitherto had been unthinkable. Of course there were times when, like when he met with the Ku Klux Klan, that Ali spouted his own unpalatable political opinions. Much of his sporting prowess in the ring goes unchallenged but his behaviour outside of it can be put into a microscope and Ali found wanting.
Recently of course we also have Manny Pacquiao becoming a senator and looking to become President. In the Philippines when Pacquiao fought, people stopped working, and sought out bars as an opportunity to sit and be proud of their Filipino heritage through the fists of a man who dazzled in the square circle. His political career did not shine as much as his boxing did, and now he is again being placed alongside Conor Benn for a future return to boxing, principally because his political career has faltered.
Another former boxer who has found himself in the political sphere is Vitali Klitschko, who is currently the mayor of Kyiv. Klitschko is no fan of Vladimir Zelensky though there is a clear understanding from both sides of the political divide in Ukraine that they have to find a common way forward once there is a ceasefire or a cessation of violence temporary or permanent. Most can quite see the time coming that Klitschko runs for Zelensky’s job.
Ukraine of course has given us many fighters who have literally become fighters on the front line from Vasyl Lomachenko to Oleksandr Usyk.
Perhaps in British politics we don’t have quite such a fraught ring for them to enter where death stalks the sport but doesn’t necessarily stalk our political process. Having said that of course we’ve seen two MPs being murdered in their constituencies due to them falling foul of people who had an opposite opinion to theirs. In recent past it has been more likely that previous utterings, mutterings and tweets were likely to get people in a row.
We’ve seen this when candidates of fringe parties have things dug up by the media to embarrass them. Campbell himself went through a little of that but not as much as Alba candidate Alex Arthur. The Alba Party in Scotland is a pro-independence party which had been formed by Alex Salmond after his conflict with the Scottish National Party.
The former Commonwealth and WBO champion contested the Lothian region in the last Hollywood election and was found to have made disparaging remarks about beggars, gypsies and AIDs patients as well as posts claiming he doesn’t need to get a coronavirus vaccine.
When confronted, Arthur did the right thing and apologised and claimed that his comments were inappropriate and misinterpreted. However, the offence that was caused did not help or really hinder as he never managed to get elected anyway. Interestingly, he did say something that was very interesting. He was quoted as saying, “now that I am trying to be a politician, I will not hold my tongue, but I will mind it.”
Campbell himself seems far more erudite and intelligent than some who’ve gone in the past to take their pugilistic instincts out of a ring and put them in the political arena. That, of course, has not stopped his critics, and prior to the election, Phil Ascough, in the local paper in Hull, wrote an opinion article which suggests that Luke Campbell’s golden reputation was in tatters.
His reputation has very much been put on the line, and whilst I may not like Campbell’s politics, I can certainly admire the fact that somebody is going to take it in their hands to stand up and put themselves forward and have their opinions tested.
But his past will haunt. That includes the Charity Foundation he established to help his local community which appears to have been advertised as a game changer but seems to have now left the game. As was pointed out by Ascough in his article, Tommy Coyle, who once lost to Campbell in the ring, has done a heck of a lot for the local community, giving back properly and only shouting about it when he wanted others to do the same as he was.
In that very context it shall be interesting to see if Campbell’s much heralded assault upon the alleged excess of local councils is successful in stripping bare and away excess. As mayor he may, potentially, be taking away some of the essential services on the front line that many of the vulnerable, the targets of his Foundation, depend upon.
However, that’s in the future and young Campbell was a polished performer in the ring and scrubbed up as a well presented young man in politics. He has now another mountain to climb. What he managed in the Commonwealth and Olympic Games as well as in the professional ranks, will have set him up for politics – it will be interesting to compare which sharks are more dangerous – in boxing or politics!
Out of his depth much.