Last-minuteTory candidate for police election
FORMER police officer Tom Byrne has been chosen by the Conservatives to bid to be the West Midlands’ next Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC). He currently advises Conservative mayor Andy Street on policing issues and is a marketing executive for the West Midlands Combined Authority. Mr Byrne, 29, was picked in what has been described by one insider as a “last-minute scramble” to find a candidate after a government-backed bid to merge the crime beat into the mayoralty lost a legal challenge.
“The party was left in an awkward position as there had been an expectation that the merger would succeed and there would not be a PCC election,” they said. “There has been a lot of frustration at the way this has been handled.”
One Conservative favourite, Jay Singh-Johal, who represented the Tories in the 2021 PCC election (delayed from 2020 over Covid), announced last week he did not intend to go forward for the role.
Mr Byrne, who served in the West Midlands force from 2016 to 2021, blamed the current Labour commissioner and his prede- cessors for leaving people feeling “less safe” than a decade ago.
His campaign will focus on the poor record of the force, currently in special measures, while highlighting high crime rates, especially knife crime. He will also highlight police station closures, with 30 currently said to be under threat.
He said: “The West Midlands needs a Conservative PCC to bring an end to Labour failure, which has been unfolding here for years.
“I have a clear plan to tackle the problems caused by successive Labour PCCs who have been closing police stations while crime is soaring and allowing us to have the highest rate of knife crime in the country.
“Regular tax increases have failed to deliver consistent improvements. I know people here just want to feel safe in their communities and my plans will make that happen.”
The current Labour PCC, Simon Foster, took the Home Office to a judicial review after it carried out a “meaningless” consultation exercise over its proposal to merge the PCC and mayoral roles. The Home Office lost the case and an appeal.
Mr Foster said he took up the fight to “defend democracy and the rights of the people I represent”.