Claire Darke

Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, she moved to Woking, Surrey at an early age. She went to a local comprehensive school and emerged with little in the way of qualifications.[4][5]

She did not get a job when she first left school – opting instead to stay at home to assist her mother in nursing an elderly grandmother. When she did find employment, she undertook a string of different jobs until eventually training and qualifying as a nurse.

Around this time she met and married Paul Darke. Being newly married and living in a small flat with her father-in-law was not ideal and with house prices in Surrey being so high, they looked further afield for somewhere to live – eventually moving to Bilston after Claire got a job as a live-in warden of a sheltered housing scheme for elderly people. She admits to finding the strong Black Country dialect a challenge to understand as she settled in to life in the region.[6]

She then got in-house training at Bilston Community College and completed a Diploma in Higher Education (DiPHE) at the then Wolverhampton Polytechnic. This allowed her to progress onto a degree course as a mature student.

She graduated from the University of Wolverhampton in 1992 with a BA (Hons) in English and Spanish.[7] After undertaking further studies, including Deaf Studies, this led to her undertaking a Certificate of Qualification in Social Work (CQSW) at University of Warwick. She has lived in Wolverhampton for over 40 years.[8] While researching her family history, she discovered her Irish heritage.[9]

Darke first stood for election as an independent in Park ward in the 2007 Wolverhampton City Council elections in response to the decision to close down the local swimming pool Compton Baths.[10] Although she only received 110 votes, the incumbent lost the seat by 136 votes. Her son also appeared on Newsround to bring attention to the issue.

Impressed by her campaign, and being the only political party to support her campaign, she was chosen as the candidate for the Liberal Democrats (UK) in the 2008 Wolverhampton City Council election.[11] She won with 42% of the vote, and increased the Liberal Democrat majority. The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives formed an alliance to take control of Wolverhampton Council which lasted until 2010.

In December 2010, Darke resigned from the Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition of Wolverhampton City Council, because 'the ideological driven policies of the Conservatives to slash and burn our great city's services must not be tolerated'.[12] She was supported by chairmen of the Wolverhampton South West and East Lib Dem parties.[13]

This caused the Wolverhampton Labour Group to take control, with a majority of 1.[14] This was the first City Council in the UK where a local coalition failed and disillusionment with the coalition was apparent after the 2010 United Kingdom general election and formation of the national Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.[15][16] She remained a Liberal Democrat, independent of the coalition until joining the Labour Party in March 2011 where she said that the Liberal Democrats 'had become 'at one' with Conservative ideology and no longer represent the ideals of the party I originally joined'.[17]

As a Labour Party Candidate, she gained 59% of the vote in the following 2012 Wolverhampton City Council election.[18][19] In the 2016 Wolverhampton City Council election, she was re-elected with 58.4% of the vote.[20]

Her first role in Wolverhampton Council was as Wolverhampton's Equalities Champion.[21] After the role of Equalities Champion, she was the Chair of Wolverhampton City Council's Health Scrutiny Panel,[22] where she undertook a Scrutiny Review of Infant Mortality.[23] She also was Chair of the Petitions Committee.[24]

She was then the Cabinet Member for Education which saw Wolverhampton's Adult Education service rated as 'Outstanding' by Ofsted.[25][26] She oversaw extra teacher training and over £2 million invested in improving schools.[27][28] In 2017, she approved of the creation of a new learning quarter in Wolverhampton.[29]

She became Deputy Mayor in May 2018, and was appointed Mayor of Wolverhampton on 15 May 2019.[30][2] Her chosen themes are recognising the contribution of women and prevention of suicide and self harm.[31] In her opening address, she stated that she is the 161^st mayor of Wolverhampton, but only the 10^th woman.[6][32] In her role, she has created the University of Wolverhampton Alumni Mayoral Scholarship Fund – a new venture to support local people into higher education, and also supported the Wolverhampton Suicide Prevention Stakeholders Forum.[7] She is an avid supporter of Wolverhampton's role in UNESCO's Global Network of Learning Cities.[33]

Darke has written extensively on abortion and is a self-declared feminist.[34] In 'Swimming against the Tide: Feminist Dissent on the Issue of Abortion' which is a pivotal book in shaping discourse around anti-abortion feminism, she wrote a chapter titled 'Abortion and Disability: Is That Different?' where she states:

Feminism is, by its very nature, about the validation of difference and Otherness - the female as 'the first step on the road along abnormality'. All I am doing is arguing that we go down that road a little further and pick up a few more allies and friends; if for no other reason than the fact that half of the disabled community are our sisters.[35]

Darke is a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the British Labour Party. She was one of the first councillors in the West Midlands to support Corbyn's successful run in the 2015 Labour Party (UK) leadership election,[36] and continued to support his leadership in the 2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election.[37]

She supports the campaign to save the British Department Store, Beatties.[38] As Cabinet Member for Education, she underlined the importance of Music as part of a young person's education[39] and criticised the Conservative Government's austerity measures and cuts to education.[40]

In the early days of Boris Johnson's Conservative Government, she criticised the new government Town of the Year competition, after it was launched in Wolverhampton, a place that has been a city since 2000:

We have been a city for 19 years and they need to catch up. Are they that out of touch that they did not bother to look it up?[41]

She is a supporter of LGBT rights. During her reign as Mayor, the rainbow flag was raised at Wolverhampton Civic Centre for LGBT History Month.[42] She is also a supporter of the UK's first transgender rapper, Nate Ethan.[43]

Darke was selected to design and decorate a Wolf sculpture as part of the local arts project Wolves in Wolves.[44][45][46] The wolf design is dedicated to all those from Wolverhampton who died in World War One.[47][48] She was formerly the Secretary of the Wolverhampton Civil and Historical Society, where she helped get more blue plaques for the city and its surroundings,[49][50] including one for Wolverhampton's first female doctor, Dr Ina Lochhead McNeill.[51][52][53] In 2020, she co-curated an art exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery titled Wolverhampton and Me about family heritage.[9][54] She is married to academic and disability rights activist, Paul Darke.