A man in a monkey suit has been elected mayor in Peter Mandelson's Hartlepool backyard.

The government was on Friday morning pledging to think again about the system of directly-elected mayors after a monkey running on a "free bananas" ticket became the first elected mayor of Hartlepool.

Labour chairman, Charles Clarke, said H'Angus the Monkey's victory was a "serious issue" which could prompt a rethink.

"He makes and ridicules the whole system. There have been some goods and some bads. The electors of Hartlepool have to make their choice," he said.

H'Angus, the mascot of the town's football team, will earn a salary of £53,000-a-year.The monkey's inner-self, 28-year-old Stuart Drummond, is a well-known but controversial figure in Hartlepool.

He has been ejected from two football matches, recently being removed from a game in Blackpool after making lewd gestures with a rubber doll.

In his victory speech, Drummond urged voters to see him for the man he was.

"Forget about the monkey. The monkey was there only for promotion purposes. The monkey was just for publicity," he said.

"I am Stuart Drummond, I am the mayor of Hartlepool, not the monkey."

In response, local MP and former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Mandelson expressed his disappointment.

"Of course I'm disappointed that the Labour candidate didn't win," he said. "One aspect of the election was that many people in the town didn't take seriously the change of system that was being introduced, they felt that the government was not serious about transferring real power and real resources.

"Many people therefore felt that if it is not a serious change of system they would not vote seriously and they would vote as a joke or protest. I would never say the voters made a mistake in any democratic election."

Elsewhere, Labour won the mayoral contests in Doncaster and Lewisham.

The Lib Dems won the mayoral battle in Watford, whilst the Conservatives topped the mayoral poll in North Tyneside. Conservative candidate Chris Morgan won a narrow victory over Labour in Stephen Byers' stomping ground.