 mike wolfe was the first directly elected mayor of stoke-on-trent, sitting in office from 2002 to 2005. ==career== ===time as mayor=== wolfe left the labour party to stand as an independent in the mayoral race of october 2002 and narrowly beat george stevenson, a local labour member of parliament. both wolfe and his successor mark meredith are openly gay. wolfe came fourth out of eight in his bid for re-election in may 2005 when labour gained the position of elected mayor. the election was notable for a record number of spoiled ballot papers. ===post-2005=== he later became a columnist for local paper, the sentinel. ==references==   
Gay_politicians Independent_politicians_in_England LGBT_mayors LGBT_politicians_from_England Living_people Mayors_of_places_in_Staffordshire People_from_Stoke-on-Trent