Stockton Council installs Teesside's first Asian mayor

Mohammed Javed worked his way out of poverty, councillors were told

The first Asian mayor has been appointed on Teesside.

Mohammed Javed has been installed at a virtual meeting of Stockton Council, becoming the first black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) man in the borough to hold the ceremonial post.

Councillors were told Mr Javed is also the first Asian mayor in the north-east of England. He became Stockton's first Asian councillor in 2007.

Labour council leader Bob Cook said his nomination was "history in the making".

His appointment was "going some way to ensuring community cohesion within the borough goes forward", he said.

Mr Javed said he was "very proud".

"The borough has many multicultural communities and I'm looking forward to working with them to ensure everyone has equal opportunity to improve their lives," he said.

Working 'tirelessly'

Councillors were told Mr Javed's family had been forced off their land during the partition of India in 1947.

He moved to Karachi, in Pakistan, to take his A-levels before relocating to Abu Dhabi, where he worked to put his brother - now a Middlesbrough GP - through medical school.

Mr Javed later worked for the NHS in England, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Labour councillor Louise Baldock said he was "determined that education was the way out of poverty and the limitations of life in the village, and was prepared to work as hard as it took". 

He had worked "tirelessly" in his Parkfield and Oxbridge ward and would do the same as mayor, she said.

Mr Javed replaced Conservative councillor Lynn Hall in the post. Kevin Faulks, of the Ingleby Barwick Independent Society, has been chosen as deputy mayor.