British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces heavy losses in a swathe of local votes next week, and one of the best hopes for success for his Conservatives is a prominent mayor who is loath to even mention his party or its leader in his campaign.
\nAndy Street has been mayor of the West Midlands, which includes Britain\u2019s second biggest city Birmingham, since 2017, building a personal brand that downplays his party allegiance in a region which traditionally backs the opposition Labour Party.
\nA former managing director of retailer John Lewis, much-loved by many Britons, Street has a website that uses green and not the Conservatives\u2019 traditional blue, and the \u201cAbout Andy Street\u201d section doesn\u2019t mention his party.
\nThe imperative to distance himself from Sunak\u2019s government has grown over the past year given the Conservatives\u2019 dire poll position, now hovering some 20 points behind Labour, and a public spat between Sunak and Street over a cancelled high-speed rail link from Birmingham to Manchester in the north of England.
\n\u201cWe did have a serious row, and I disagreed with what (Sunak) did \u2026 It was a very good example of putting the place I represent before the party label,\u201d Street told Reuters.
\nHe makes no apologies for playing down his Conservative allegiance. \u201cIt\u2019s been helpful, all the way through, but it\u2019s been utterly consistent,\u201d he said, adding that this came with the role of being a mayor rather than a lawmaker in London.
\nSunak has struggled to resuscitate Conservative fortunes nationally after scandals and economic mismanagement brought down former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in a matter of months in 2022, tanking their party\u2019s ratings.
\n\u2018DEFENSIVE ELECTION\u2019
\nA widespread wipeout for the Conservatives at the May 2 local council elections could put pressure on Sunak\u2019s leadership and force him to bring forward a national election he currently expects to hold in the second half of the year \u2013 and must be held by January 2025.
\nWhen most of the councils were last contested in 2021, the Conservatives received a national equivalent share of the vote of around 40%, with Labour on 30%, parliamentary figures show.
\nAkash Paun, from the Institute for Government think-tank, said it would be a \u201cdefensive election\u201d for the Conservatives as their decent showing in 2021 gave them more to lose this time.
\nTen regional mayors will be elected in all with Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and London\u2019s Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan seeking re-election, while a by-election to a parliamentary seat in Blackpool South may prove a further headache for Sunak.
\nAsked whether the party name had become \u201ctoxic\u201d with Street and Houchen both omitting Conservative branding from some leaflets, Sunak praised their record.
\n\u201cWhether it\u2019s Ben, whether it\u2019s Andy, you\u2019ve got a very clear choice, and you can see what the Conservatives are actually delivering,\u201d Sunak told reporters on a trip on Tuesday.
\nThe effective bankruptcy of the Labour-run council in Birmingham, which controls its own budget separately to the regional mayoralty, provides a microcosm for some of the sharp debates between the parties nationally.
\nConservatives \u2013 including Street \u2013 say it shows how Labour can\u2019t be trusted with running budgets, while Labour argues it highlights a national problem caused by Conservative central government cuts in funding to local councils since 2010.
\nVERY GOOD JOB
\nPolls give a mixed picture for Street,indicating the Conservative brand may be tarnishing his campaign.
\nOne poll last week found that while he personally had a positive approval rating of +12%, he still trailed the Labour candidate by 14 points. A different survey found that Street had a two-point lead.
\nAt a debate last week between the candidates in Birmingham, some voters were open to Street\u2019s pitch of delivering investment, transport and training, even if they wouldn\u2019t usually vote Conservative.
\n\u201cI lean more towards Labour, but I generally think Andy Street\u2019s done a very good job over the last few years,\u201d said Alistair Russell, 35, who works in property. He added that while he wouldn\u2019t vote Conservative in a national election, \u201cI do consider voting for him\u201d.
\nLabour candidate Richard Parker, an accountant who worked on setting up the devolution settlement for the West Midlands, is keen to link Street with the unpopular national government.
\n\u201cSadly, under a Tory government and a Tory mayor, this region has been going backwards, not forwards,\u201d Parker said.
\nWhile the polls paint a bleak picture for Conservatives nationwide, the unpredictability of local races and lower turnout give Street a chance, which may in turn buy Sunak some breathing space.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s going to be very close, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Street said, adding he was relieved there was no national election on the same day.
\n(Reuters)mayor. local votes, prominent mayor, Conservative Party<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands, is distancing himself from British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government ahead of local elections. Street, a Conservative, has built a personal brand that downplays his party allegiance and has even had public disagreements with Sunak. The upcoming local elections are seen as a defensive one for the Conservatives, with Street facing a tough race against the Labour candidate despite his positive approval ratings. Street’s ability to attract voters who wouldn’t usually vote Conservative may give him a chance in the election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4791,195,461,1766,4029,4039,1221,4422,1240,7759,838,2853,1600,153,3251,304,415,2753,839,5865,148,845,7757,450,2859,4086,5444,1570,7378,5328,1215,5863,3775,1792,7758,284,2342,1958,1371,2173,335,6413,3773,1229,3774,1731,494,1774,1379,2343,6305,18],"class_list":["post-9501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-approval","tag-britain","tag-british","tag-budget","tag-budgets","tag-building","tag-campaign","tag-candidates","tag-clear","tag-conservative-party","tag-conservatives","tag-disagreements","tag-election","tag-elections","tag-england","tag-funding","tag-government","tag-investment","tag-labour","tag-labour-party","tag-local","tag-local-elections","tag-local-votes","tag-london","tag-managing-director","tag-mayor","tag-mayors","tag-mismanagement","tag-parties","tag-party","tag-poll","tag-polls","tag-pressure","tag-prime-minister","tag-prominent-mayor","tag-property","tag-re-election","tag-rishi-sunak","tag-scandals","tag-settlement","tag-space","tag-speed","tag-sunak","tag-survey","tag-tories","tag-training","tag-uk","tag-vote","tag-voters","tag-voting","tag-who","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n