Dan Jarvis has won his battle with Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) to stand to be Sheffield City Region mayor and remain an MP.

The party had decreed that Jarvis would have to quit parliament if he wanted to take on the newly created job.

But Jarvis, who had once been seen as a future Labour leader, will no longer be forced to step down as Barnsley Central MP.

“I am honoured to be Labour’s candidate for the Sheffield City Region mayoral election and I am looking forward to the campaign,” he said.

“This is an important role at a crucial moment and we must ensure that we elect a Labour mayor who will deliver a bold and radical plan for delivering real change for the people of South Yorkshire.”

A group of 13 Labour MPs from Yorkshire had written to the NEC to brand the initial move to force Jarvis to quit parliament as “unfair” and “undemocratic”

Jarvis won 58% of the vote in the contest to be the Labour candidate against Sheffield councillor Ben Curran.

The post of the Sheffield City Region Mayor has been mired in controversy because, unlike similar rolls in Manchester and the West Midlands, no devolution and funding deal has yet been agreed to go with the appointment.

Two of the four South Yorkshire councils – Doncaster and Barnsley – have rejected a devolution solution centred on the county in favour of joining a pan-Yorkshire proposal.

Earlier this month, 18 of the 20 local authorities in Yorkshire agreed to back a proposal to the Government to deliver a One Yorkshire devolution deal. Sheffield and Rotherham were the only Yorkshire councils not to sign up to the plan.