West Midlands mayor distances himself from Tories, urging voters to ‘distinguish between party and me’ | Mayoral elections

The Tory mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, has said he wants voters to focus on him and his record, not the performance of the Conservative party nationally, when deciding whether he should be given a third term in charge of England’s second- largest region.

In an interview with the Observer, Street said he was busy promoting what he calls “Brand Andy, the individual” rather than operating under his party’s colours, in a contest which could affect whether Rishi Sunak survives as prime minister and leads the Tories into the next general election.

“I am proud to be a Conservative but it has always been what I call ‘brand Andy’ – one individual,” he said during a day of campaigning before the 2 May poll.

“This is a mayoral election; it is not a general election. People in mayoral elections historically are well able to distinguish between the party and the individual. I do hope it is the case …because of my record: one individual, one mayor.”

His emphasis on the “individual” as opposed to “team Tory” is designed to put a decent distance between himself and a party that is way behind Labour in the polls, and with which he has on occasions been profoundly at odds.

Much of Street’s campaign material is not Tory blue, but green – and deliberately so. “It’s green and it’s been green for seven years. Even under Theresa May it was green,” he says.

Unlike Sunak, Street, a former managing director of John Lewis who has been mayor since 2017, was a strong remainer and is an ardent believer in net zero. He was enraged last October when the prime minister ditched the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2. “I was very cross,” he recalls. “I felt very let down.”

Since then, he says, he has recovered “emotionally” from some searing rows, and he concedes that Sunak and transport secretary Mark Harper have worked hard to repair the damage, making clear that they will at least complete stage one of HS2, from London to Birmingham. They have also stood by promises to improve connectivity in the north, he says.

As for Brexit, the mayor pauses for a second when asked if a project which Sunak strongly supported and claimed would be benefit the whole of the UK, had been good for the West Midlands.

“It was not originally,” he concedes. “It was not good for the West Midlands initially, as the exporting capital of the UK. It initially had a negative effect, but the really encouraging thing is that our exports are back above where they were in 2019. So it did have a challenging economic effect, but we appear to be moving through that well now, in terms of the rebound.”

Overall, then? A success, or not? “It looks to have been: by now I think we would say neutral,” is the most positive gloss he can put on it.

Street is, however, genuinely proud of his own record over the past seven years. An extra £10bn has come to the area as a result of the mayoral system, he says. In addition his mayoralty has delivered 16,000 more houses a year, 33% of them “affordable”, which is, he says, one of the best records of any region. He also says his pressure on central government has transformed the way money is awarded to regions, and is ending the “begging bowl” approach, under which councils had to apply for money from endless different pots. Soon it will all be coming from one pot, he says.

While poverty rates in many areas under his control remain far too high, he argues that they are the result of economic challenges and problems the country as a whole has faced.

Street believes he will be run close this time by Labour, whose candidate is Richard Parker, a former partner with accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers. Parker says the West Midlands has suffered from a “Tory mayor and a Tory government who have let our region down”. He is emphasising the need for more green investment and action on poverty.

In the last mayoral election, in 2021, Street held off a challenge from Labour’s Liam Byrne, winning 48.7% of the vote to Byrne’s 39.7%. Downing Street will be desperate for Street to hang on again. Losing this key mayoralty could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back on an election day that could, experts predict, see the prime minister’s party lose around half of the seats it is defending nationally.

Street was not sure whether Sunak would be joining him on the campaign trail. “I actually don’t know,” he said. “Rishi has not suggested whether he is [going to] or not but Penny Mordaunt was here yesterday. Gillian Keegan is soon, so we have got all sorts of cabinet ministers here.”

But would he actually like the prime minister to join him on the stump? Would it help promote brand Andy?

Street seemed not to be bothered one way or another. “He is very welcome to come and campaign, yes,” he said.