H'Angus the Monkey ex-Hartlepool mayor Stuart Drummond relocating

Stuart Drummond said moving to Australia was something his family had considered for some time

A "joke" candidate who went on to win three terms of office as a town's elected mayor says he is relocating to Australia with his family.

Stuart Drummond stood as H'Angus the Monkey - Hartlepool Football Club's mascot - in 2002 and "never for a second" thought he would win.

However, the former call centre worker went beyond being a comedy character and was re-elected twice.

He stood down in 2013 and is now looking to start a new life Down Under.

Mr Drummond was 28 when he stood as an independent candidate in a stunt dreamt up in a pub to publicise Hartlepool FC, where he worked as the mascot.

It created headlines when he beat all the odds and defeated the high-profile Labour favourite, albeit by a narrow margin.

Looking back, he said: "There was fear, there was trepidation, there was excitement, there was elation - I can't really describe it because it was so unexpected.

"It was a case of 'what happens now?' because I'd never been into politics before, I didn't know what to expect."

Mr Drummond said that the mascot outfit had served its purpose in getting him noticed

Afterwards, former Hartlepool MP Peter Mandelson, who had supported the beaten high-profile Labour candidate, took him to one side.

Mr Drummond said Mr Mandelson told him he was a "disgrace" who would "set the town back 20 years".

Mr Drummond added: "He said to me, 'business will never invest in the town any more - you've made us a laughing stock', and I went, 'oh, OK'.

"Then he asked me what school I went to, what I'd done at uni and when I said 'business, French, Spanish', five minutes later he was on TV saying what an intelligent guy I was, spoke three languages and had the town at heart.

"So I guess that was my introduction into how politics worked."

Elected for third term

He quickly ditched the monkey outfit, saying it had served its purpose to get him noticed and he now wanted to show the town how serious he was about the job.

The residents of Hartlepool agreed and three years later he was re-elected with a majority of more than 10,000, and then for a third term in 2009.

He left office in 2013 after a referendum a few months earlier signalled the end for the mayoral system, with Hartlepool Council instead governed by committees.

One of Stuart Drummond's election pledges in 2002 was free bananas for schoolchildren

Looking back at his tenure as mayor, he said there had been some "great times", with one of the highlights being the 2010 Tall Ships Race, which attracted nearly a million visitors, putting Hartlepool on an "international pedestal".

He is now preparing to move to Australia on a four-year temporary visa with his wife and three children.

"It's something my family and I have been looking at for quite a number of years now and had quite a few false starts", he said.

"I really want to give my three children good opportunities over there."

He added: "And of course, there's the weather."