John Prescott has been confirmed as Labour's candidate to stand as the first elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside, when voters across England and Wales vote for the new positions in November.
Prescott - a Labour peer and former deputy prime minister under Tony Blair - tweeted his confirmation on Monday morning, saying he was "delighted" at being picked.
Prescott later said he would spend the next four months touring the region listening to people's concerns about crime. Although Labour opposed the coalition government's creation of Police and Crime Commissioners, Prescott said on Twitter: "I will be the People's Voice. THEY will shape their policing priorities with the police NOT Whitehall."
There is no suggestion that Prescott would give up his seat in the House of Lords if he were elected in November.
Apart from Prescott most of Labour's candidates are relative unknowns - a mix of local councillors and people who've previously stood for seats in Parliament.
Jane Kennedy, the former Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, is confirmed as Labour's candidate in Merseyside. She stood down at the last general election having previously served as a Treasury minister.
If the parties maintain their current form in the opinion polls it's expected that Labour would do very well in the elections for Police Commissioners later this year. It has prompted concerns among Tories that they will struggle to dictate crime policies once power is transfered to directly elected officials with a mandate.
Last week the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair told The Huffington Post: ""I don't know quite how much the coalition has thought about how much of the map will be coloured red," suggesting to us that: "You're going to have local elected politicians who have a diffierent political view than the elected government, plus a very independent inspectorate.
"I think this may be a good thing, but it may be difficult for the Home Office to control policing in the way it has done for the past 100 year," Blair told HuffPost.
Police Commissioners are expected to work full-time and will be paid between £65,000 and £100,000 depending on the size of the force they are overseeing. Their role will be to set police budgets and priorities and will have the power to sack chief constables if they feel the job isn't being done properly.
John Prescott would get a salary of £75,000 if, as expected, he is elected in Humberside.
The Tories are expected to announce their candidates for police commissioners by the end of the month. There have been concerns about the calibre of their candidates. One senior party source told HuffPost earlier this year that the candidates on the shortlists had been "massive dissapointment" for Number 10.
The Tories have already had some problems in Kent, where former Army colonel Tim Collins pulled out of the race last month. Local MP Julian Brazier has since accused local activists of rigging the shortlist.