BRITAIN'S major political parties are engaged in a tug of war over the Mayor of Middlesbrough, Ray Mallon.

Mr Mallon first made clear that he intends to remain an Independent in his weekly column in The Northern Echo.

However, there were reports in yesterday's national newspapers that the Labour Party was trying to entice Mr Mallon to abandon Middlesbrough and stand as the Lab-our candidate for the Stoke-on-Trent South seat.

They were dismissed by a source close to Mr Mallon yesterday who reiterated that the mayor would stand by his decision to remain independent.

The safe seat now seems set to go the way of Tony Robinson, better known as Baldrick from TV's Blackadder series.

However, the source did reveal that Conservative Party politicians had also app-roached Mr Mallon.

He said: "Ray Mallon made his statement because it was beginning to effect his negotiations on behalf of the council with businessmen who were saying to him: 'Will you be here next year, or will we be dealing with someone else?'

"There's no doubt that senior figures in the Labour Party have approached Ray Mallon and so have lower ranking members, including councillors.

"However, Conservative politicians have also tried to persuade him to join their party. I would be stunned if he left the North-East to go to Stoke."

Writing in The Northern Echo in January, Mr Mallon, the former head of Middlesbrough CID who came to power in April, 2002 with a landslide 26,363 vote, said: "I've made no secret in the past of the fact that my leanings are broadly towards Labour, but our agenda in Middlesbrough is acceptable to all political persuasions."