FORMER Boro goalkeeper Jim Platt has been appointed leader of one of Middlesbrough’s largest political groups.

The 69-year-old member for Kader has been chosen as the temporary chief of the Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association (MICA).

Cllr Platt was elected last year winning 970 votes.

The former international shot-stopper takes the reins after Nunthorpe councillor Jon Rathmell stepped down as leader for the time being.

The member for Kader hoped he could offer a “safe pair of hands” following departures from the group in the past 12 months.

Cllr Platt said: “I’ll be the leader in the short-term.

“My job at the moment is to bring everybody together. We have had some disruptions with people leaving the group.

“I see my job as keeping everybody as a group and keeping everybody together.

“We’re all independents and everyone has their own ideas but we’re a group at the end of the day – and we can have our own ideas.

“But we do have to stick together as a group.”

Platt, who’s originally from Ballymoney in Northern Ireland, moved to Teesside when Stan Anderson signed him aged 19 in 1971.