Comment Mayor Street could take Tories down a new road
SOME Conservative MPs, worried about the state of their party, look wistfully towards Scotland.
Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Tories, may be just what they need if they are to undo the damage wrought on their party in recent years.
She’s likeable, sensible and comes across as a genuine person who just happens to be a Tory. She certainly doesn’t sound like a politician, which is one of the reasons she makes such a good one.
Ms Davidson isn’t currently an MP and has said she’s more than content representing the party in Scotland, but who knows what sort of role she could play in the future?
However, she’s about to go on maternity leave, so she’ll be out of full-time action for a good few months.
Before that happens, she’s making a visit to the West Midlands – for a meeting with the region’s mayor.
Because Ms Davidson isn’t the only person that’s been touted as the breath of fresh air the Conservatives desperately need.
Some commentators see West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, the former boss of John Lewis, as another promising prospect.
Like Ms Davidson, he’s achieved electoral success for the Conservatives in a place where they might have been expected to struggle (the SNP are the largest party in the Scottish Parliament by a clear margin, but the Conservatives are second, with more representatives than Labour).
And like Ms Davidson, he comes across as a decent and genuine human being, and not your typical politician.
He’s also competent. There was a time when a reputation for competence was the Tories’ great strength, but last year’s bungled general election and the chaos surrounding Brexit have seen that reputation diminished.
If you were looking for someone to detoxify the Tory brand, you could do a lot worse.
That’s certainly the view of sympathetic journalists such as Matthew Parris, the Times columnist and former Conservative MP, who has written about his admiration for Mr Street.
But it’s also the view of people who are still involved with the party at a senior level. They think Andy Street can help them get back on track, once Brexit is dealt with (and, one assumes, Theresa May is gone).
Mr Street is being urged to play a more high-profile role, and the annual Conservative conference, held this year in Birmingham, will be used as a platform to allow him to do that. He is being billed as the “host” of the conference, beginning at the end of September.
He’ll get to make a speech from the main platform, although there’s nothing surprising about that.
But he’ll also be a presence throughout the conference, organis- ing and launching various events.
There will be a major jobs fair at Birmingham Library, next to the ICC conference venue, designed to showcase West Midlands businesses.
The mayor will be highlighting the role of the West Midlands in developing driverless vehicles, which will be in action on the streets of Birmingham. Making the UK a world leader in the development of autonomous vehicles and their associated technology is an ambition of Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, and the West Midlands is where a lot of the testing and development takes place.
For example, Transport for the West Midlands, part of the Combined Authority chaired by Mr Street, is taking part in a pilot scheme for technology called INRIX AV Road Rules.
This beams road information to the cars, ensuring they have essential information such as where the zebra crossings are and which speed limits are in operation.
Most ambitious of all, in political terms, is a plan to get Cabinet Ministers out of the ICC. Andy Street would act as a tour guide, taking them to key sites in the West Midlands.
This hasn’t been confirmed, and Theresa May’s team are going to have a lot of demands on their time during the conference. However, perhaps they’ll be grateful of the chance to escape what may be a pretty depressing event, as a divided party leads the country towards an uncertain Brexit.
In the long run, however, is there a limit to how much Mr Street can do for the national party as West Midlands mayor?
If the Tories really want him to play a role then they’ll have to get him into Parliament.
As an MP, he’d be swiftly bought into government, or the opposition front bench. He wouldn’t be expected to pay his dues like the average backbencher.
However, Mr Street is said to be keen to stand again as West Midlands mayor when the next election comes around, in 2020.
If he sticks to that plan – and if the West Midlands elects him a second time – Parliament will have to wait.
And who knows how the wind will have changed by 2024, when his second term as mayor comes to an end.
As an MP, Andy Street would be swiftly bought into government...