C
Chloe Chaplain
Guest
When Andy Street was chosen to be the first ever Mayor of the West Midlands in 2017 his victory represented a surprise win for the Conservative Party. He was one of two Tory metro mayors elected – alongside Tees Valley’s Ben Houchen – in areas that defied predictions they would elect Labour representatives.
Their victories were seen as significant in demonstrating a shift in political allegiance from voters in urban parts of the midlands and north of England.
Now Mr Street is battling for a third term in office and the result in the West Midlands is set to be one of the closest watched of all the local and mayoral elections taking place next month. Again, expectations are against him. His party has been tanking in national polling and looks on course for a significant defeat in the next general election.
He has been distancing himself from the national Conservative Government in what many consider to be an attempt not to become electoral collateral damage.
Speaking to i in a coffee shop in Sutton Coldfield, an affluent town northeast of Birmingham city centre, Mr Street says it has always been about “what I call ‘Brand Andy’”.
“Because this is an election for one person to do a very big job with a big budget it’s very important you are not choosing a party to do it, you are choosing the individual,” he said. “So I lay out what I’ve done. There’s my record, judge me on it. That’s what I’m going to do.”
“People said I had no chance of winning here as a Conservative in 2017 and I did it because it was just a vote for the person and the plan. I have used exactly the same brand Andy approach three times now.”
Is the party’s standing on a national level damaging this “brand”?
“That’s what we’re going to see, frankly,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think people understand this is a different election, where you’re voting for an individual.”
A Tory association chair in the West Midlands told i they were pessimistic about the result.
“I think it is going to be really close. I think if it had not been for the fact [Andy Street] has got the blue flag next to his name he would have probably walked it, but people are associating him with the Conservative Party and he could lose it as a result, yet he has done wonders for the region,” they said. “It certainly won’t [down to] his personality and his policies.”
Labour sources on the ground admit that Mr Street’s personal popularity could be a problem for them.
“I genuinely do believe that it is absolutely neck and neck at the moment,” one source said. “I have spoken to people on the doors who have said they are voting Labour at the general election and voting Labour forever – telling me ‘I am never ever voting for the Conservatives again… but I will vote for Andy Street because he has done nothing wrong’.”
They added: “There are also people saying I’m voting Reform because we need to send the Conservatives a message.” Sources suggested Reform could shave off some Tory support in parts of the Black Country like Wolverhampton and Dudley.
But Labour’s candidate Richard Parker has his own challenges in the region. This month Birmingham residents are going to be hit with their new council tax bills, which are set to increase by around 20 per cent over two years, in attempts to claw back funds following the bankruptcy of Labour-led Birmingham City Council. The latest set of bills will include a 10 per cent hike – not a small amount for families already struggling with budgets.
Speaking to i in between canvassing, Mr Parker said: “There are some issues the council faces and their reports and reviews going on, which will look to have a better understanding of what’s gone wrong and why but the reality is that the government has taken a billion pounds out of the budgets of Birmingham and that has had an awful impact on some of our poorest communities at the time they needed it most.”
If elected, then, would he defer blame to central Government when things go wrong? “I’m prepared to take full responsibility for the things that I’m responsible for,” he said. “But I’ll take a very different approach to the current mayor. I won’t be looking to attack and demean councils in this region that have got financial problems.”
Regardless of what Labour says, the issue of higher council taxes has the potential to be a tricky issue for the party.
“The issue of Birmingham council and the bankruptcy is a big one, don’t underestimate the impact of that,” the Tory association chair said. “The new bills only started to land on people’s mats this month so it’s probably not kicked in yet but when people tend to vote they tend to look at the wallets first. Whether that’s going to be enough time to help Andy Street out is debatable.”
Labour could also see some of its vote shaved off by independent candidate Akhmed Yakoob who is campaigning hard against Labour’s stance on Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Out knocking on doors with the Labour campaign team in Handsworth, just outside Birmingham city centre, one voter said they would not be voting Labour because of exactly this issue.
Addressing this, Mr Walker said: “We have been listening to voters… and I understand their concerns. I put a statement out on Gaza asking for a ceasefire, and that we need to work together with the international community to ensure the hostages are released and create an environment to have a two state solution.”
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Waseem Zaffar, a Labour councillor in a nearby ward, said Gaza would be an issue for the party but argued it was not a voter priority.
“Some people who voted Labour do feel the position is not what they wanted but what upsets them more is issues like cost of living and housing,” he said.
“My single biggest area of casework comes from housing – families of five and six living in two bedroom properties.”
Housing is an issue that, like elsewhere in the country, comes up again and again across the West Midlands. The first question from a voter at a hustings in Sutton Coldfield (which Mr Walker did not attend due, his team said, to diary clashes) was about the “housing crisis”.
Mr Street is campaigning on a promise to build more social housing. “In common with other areas of the country, we’re not building enough social housing. I’ve given a very clear manifesto commitment to triple the rate of social housing building across the region,” he said.
“And the reason we can do that is that at the last devolution deal we got our hands on what they call the affordable housing programme. So we have now got that cash and we are starting all the discussions with individual social landlords about how we can help them do it.”
Mr Parker said his priority would be “bringing together as much of the housing resources the Mayor has and targeting that on a big social housing programme, something he has not done”.
He added: “That is so important because we’ve got so many people that can’t get access to warm, safe, secure homes, because if the private market is too expensive and they’ll never get mortgages and those people live in some of our poorest communities.” He has also pledged to address skills and training – something he said was “one of the biggest issues” in the West Midlands – focusing on education for those aged 16 to 19.
With big political names from the Conservatives and Labour seen out canvassing across the West Midlands, its clear both parties are fighting for every vote.
For Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, winning the mayoralty would continue the momentum it has achieved in the lead up to the national poll. But failing to do so would expose a “chink in Labour’s armour”, one party insider said.
Arguably, the stakes are even higher for Rishi Sunak. “Essentially Andy Street is the Beacon of Hope for the Conservatives,” the Labour source said. “They are desperate to keep him to show he has a foothold with voters.”
They added: “If you can’t keep ‘Mr Apolitical’ Andy Street in office because of your brand is so toxic how are you going to deliver MPs?”
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Their victories were seen as significant in demonstrating a shift in political allegiance from voters in urban parts of the midlands and north of England.
Now Mr Street is battling for a third term in office and the result in the West Midlands is set to be one of the closest watched of all the local and mayoral elections taking place next month. Again, expectations are against him. His party has been tanking in national polling and looks on course for a significant defeat in the next general election.
He has been distancing himself from the national Conservative Government in what many consider to be an attempt not to become electoral collateral damage.
Speaking to i in a coffee shop in Sutton Coldfield, an affluent town northeast of Birmingham city centre, Mr Street says it has always been about “what I call ‘Brand Andy’”.
“Because this is an election for one person to do a very big job with a big budget it’s very important you are not choosing a party to do it, you are choosing the individual,” he said. “So I lay out what I’ve done. There’s my record, judge me on it. That’s what I’m going to do.”
“People said I had no chance of winning here as a Conservative in 2017 and I did it because it was just a vote for the person and the plan. I have used exactly the same brand Andy approach three times now.”
Is the party’s standing on a national level damaging this “brand”?
“That’s what we’re going to see, frankly,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think people understand this is a different election, where you’re voting for an individual.”
A Tory association chair in the West Midlands told i they were pessimistic about the result.
“I think it is going to be really close. I think if it had not been for the fact [Andy Street] has got the blue flag next to his name he would have probably walked it, but people are associating him with the Conservative Party and he could lose it as a result, yet he has done wonders for the region,” they said. “It certainly won’t [down to] his personality and his policies.”
Labour sources on the ground admit that Mr Street’s personal popularity could be a problem for them.
“I genuinely do believe that it is absolutely neck and neck at the moment,” one source said. “I have spoken to people on the doors who have said they are voting Labour at the general election and voting Labour forever – telling me ‘I am never ever voting for the Conservatives again… but I will vote for Andy Street because he has done nothing wrong’.”
They added: “There are also people saying I’m voting Reform because we need to send the Conservatives a message.” Sources suggested Reform could shave off some Tory support in parts of the Black Country like Wolverhampton and Dudley.
But Labour’s candidate Richard Parker has his own challenges in the region. This month Birmingham residents are going to be hit with their new council tax bills, which are set to increase by around 20 per cent over two years, in attempts to claw back funds following the bankruptcy of Labour-led Birmingham City Council. The latest set of bills will include a 10 per cent hike – not a small amount for families already struggling with budgets.
Speaking to i in between canvassing, Mr Parker said: “There are some issues the council faces and their reports and reviews going on, which will look to have a better understanding of what’s gone wrong and why but the reality is that the government has taken a billion pounds out of the budgets of Birmingham and that has had an awful impact on some of our poorest communities at the time they needed it most.”
If elected, then, would he defer blame to central Government when things go wrong? “I’m prepared to take full responsibility for the things that I’m responsible for,” he said. “But I’ll take a very different approach to the current mayor. I won’t be looking to attack and demean councils in this region that have got financial problems.”
Regardless of what Labour says, the issue of higher council taxes has the potential to be a tricky issue for the party.
“The issue of Birmingham council and the bankruptcy is a big one, don’t underestimate the impact of that,” the Tory association chair said. “The new bills only started to land on people’s mats this month so it’s probably not kicked in yet but when people tend to vote they tend to look at the wallets first. Whether that’s going to be enough time to help Andy Street out is debatable.”
Labour could also see some of its vote shaved off by independent candidate Akhmed Yakoob who is campaigning hard against Labour’s stance on Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Out knocking on doors with the Labour campaign team in Handsworth, just outside Birmingham city centre, one voter said they would not be voting Labour because of exactly this issue.
Addressing this, Mr Walker said: “We have been listening to voters… and I understand their concerns. I put a statement out on Gaza asking for a ceasefire, and that we need to work together with the international community to ensure the hostages are released and create an environment to have a two state solution.”
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Waseem Zaffar, a Labour councillor in a nearby ward, said Gaza would be an issue for the party but argued it was not a voter priority.
“Some people who voted Labour do feel the position is not what they wanted but what upsets them more is issues like cost of living and housing,” he said.
“My single biggest area of casework comes from housing – families of five and six living in two bedroom properties.”
Housing is an issue that, like elsewhere in the country, comes up again and again across the West Midlands. The first question from a voter at a hustings in Sutton Coldfield (which Mr Walker did not attend due, his team said, to diary clashes) was about the “housing crisis”.
Mr Street is campaigning on a promise to build more social housing. “In common with other areas of the country, we’re not building enough social housing. I’ve given a very clear manifesto commitment to triple the rate of social housing building across the region,” he said.
“And the reason we can do that is that at the last devolution deal we got our hands on what they call the affordable housing programme. So we have now got that cash and we are starting all the discussions with individual social landlords about how we can help them do it.”
Mr Parker said his priority would be “bringing together as much of the housing resources the Mayor has and targeting that on a big social housing programme, something he has not done”.
He added: “That is so important because we’ve got so many people that can’t get access to warm, safe, secure homes, because if the private market is too expensive and they’ll never get mortgages and those people live in some of our poorest communities.” He has also pledged to address skills and training – something he said was “one of the biggest issues” in the West Midlands – focusing on education for those aged 16 to 19.
With big political names from the Conservatives and Labour seen out canvassing across the West Midlands, its clear both parties are fighting for every vote.
For Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, winning the mayoralty would continue the momentum it has achieved in the lead up to the national poll. But failing to do so would expose a “chink in Labour’s armour”, one party insider said.
Arguably, the stakes are even higher for Rishi Sunak. “Essentially Andy Street is the Beacon of Hope for the Conservatives,” the Labour source said. “They are desperate to keep him to show he has a foothold with voters.”
They added: “If you can’t keep ‘Mr Apolitical’ Andy Street in office because of your brand is so toxic how are you going to deliver MPs?”
Continue reading...