Former Lord Mayor on top police role shortlist
FORMER Birmingham Lord Mayor Yvonne Mosquito is battling to become the next Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands.
Councillor Mosquito – whose mayoralty ended last month – has been shortlisted to become the Labour candidate to succeed David Jamieson when he steps down next year from the £100,000 a year job.
Her bid for the role comes three years after she left her post as Jamieson’s deputy following allegations of serious misconduct over a high profile murder investigation.
She is one of four people in the
running for the Labour candidacy – the others are former North Warwickshire MP Mike O’Brien, lawyer Simon Foster and Melanie Dudley, who was assistant chief executive at Sandwell Council.
Cllr Mosquito’s tenure as Lord Mayor of Birmingham ended last month in laughter when she agreed to officially open the kitchen extension of TV comic Joe Lycett.
Failing to make the shortlist – selected by a panel led by disgraced Leicester East MP Keith Vaz – were Lynette Kelly, who was the union Unison’s preferred candidate and a former assistant current
McNeil.
Three of the four candidates are expected to face a grilling at a hustings being held in the city on June 30 organised by Labour’s leftist Momentum group to select their preferred candidate to replace Mr Jamieson. Cllr Mosquito (Bordesley and Highgate, Labour) left her post as deputy to Mr Jamieson in 2016 after it was claimed she had upset the family of teenage murder victim Kenichi Phillips by turning up to pray with them.
An investigation PCC, and Jamieson’s strategic adviser Tom
ruled
her actions amounted to serious misconduct and had made it harder for officers to investigate the killing.
She later received a payout after a tribunal.
A West Midlands Labour spokesman said: “The process of shortlisting candidates to be the next West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner was conducted in a rigorous, robust, transparent and fair way, in accordance with party rules and with proper consideration given to promoting equal opportunities.”
The election to succeed Mr Jamieson as PCC is set to take place in May 2020. Labour plans to announce its candidate on September 12.