Can Labour topple Andy Street?

As the campaign gets nasty, the May 2 election will be a referendum not just on the mayor’s record - but on the concept of the mayoralty itself

Dear Patchers – welcome to your Thursday briefing.

The race is on to be the next West Midlands mayor and tactics are getting feisty. In today’s story we hear from those close to the Labour and Conservative campaigns, plus independent experts, to get a gauge of how likely Andy Street is to maintain his coveted position.

Your Brum in brief leads with the news that the BBC is planning to adapt a series of detective novels set in the Black Country for television — I hope they can guarantee accuracy and all chips will be orange. Elsewhere, Birmingham Museums want your help to transcribe documents from as far back as the 19th Century and West Midlands police officer has been reprimanded for gross misconduct. Plus, we’ve recommended a couple of musical things for you to do this weekend.

And finally, help make newsletters like this one even better. A university researcher is looking into what we like about newsletters and why they are growing in popularity. He's looking for readers to interview. If you'd like to help please get in touch with Charles Lambert at  clambert5@uca.ac.uk 

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Brum in brief

📖Black Country on the BBC: Cradley Heath-born crime writer Angela Marsons books are set to be dramatised for the BBC. Marsons struggled for 25 years to get her work published and was cautioned by industry insiders not to set her novels in the Black Country — but she persisted. The former Merry Hill shopping centre security manager started out with digital publisher Bookouture in 2015 and has enjoyed roaring success. She has since sold 5.5 million copies and the 20th book in her Detective Inspector Kim Stone series is out next month.

🕵️‍♀️Documentation detectives: Birmingham Museums Trust (BMT) is looking for people to help transcribe records dating back to 1885. Registers recording every object that was added into the museum’s permanent collection need to be transferred to the digital database. You can contribute from your computer at home and a tutorial is provided on the website. Sara Wajid and Zak Mensah, Joint CEOs of BMT say their role is “more than a collection of buildings and objects”, the BMT forges “links between past, present and future in ways that inspire creativity, hope and trust.”

🚨‘No place in policing’: A West Midlands police officer who filmed himself having sex with a woman at a work Christmas party and shared it with colleagues, was found to have committed gross misconduct on Wednesday. 29-year-old PC Daryl Watson, who has since resigned, was at the event held at the NEC in December 2022. Chief Constable PC Craig Guildford said there was "no place in policing for those who choose to conduct themselves in such a manner".

🎸This charming man: Legendary guitarist of The Smiths and long time solo artist Johnny Marr will play at University of Wolverhampton’s The Halls this Sunday evening. Get your tickets here, for £42.

🎭Nineteen eighty more: For more 80s pop bangers, head to The Alexandra from now until Saturday for I Should Be So Lucky the musical. The heart-warming summery comedy is filled with era-defining tunes. Tickets from £43.

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Can Labour topple Andy Street?

By Kate Knowles

“Mutiny!” “Revolt!” So pinged my WhatsApp messages last week when the news broke that five members of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) board had declared no confidence in Mayor Andy Street. They had sent Street a letter that chastised him for criticising local authorities and for being “adversarial”, among other alleged failures. 

The letter, which was shared publicly on March 27, likely referred to a recent opinion piece about Birmingham City Council’s financial crisis, written by Street and published in the Financial Times . The article had a polemical tone and placed the blame for the mess firmly at the door of the local authority, while promoting the WMCA’s sparkling successes. 

The one-word texts I received were laced with irony — after all, the letter’s signatories were the leaders of four Labour councils: Birmingham, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Coventry. Breaking news, I thought. Labour politicians say Tory leader is bad just before election!

Incumbent mayor Andy Street. Photo by: WMCA.

“The reaction of the public tells you all you need to know about this desperate attempt at gutter politics,” Street said in response. While I doubt most West Midlands are even aware of the letter, its fallout could have real repercussions, by destabilising the West Midlands Combined Authority which — since it is made up of four Labour and three Tory constituent councils — requires cross-party collaboration to get work done. 

But while we like to write about policy here on The Dispatch — to dig into the real-world effects of changes being made by local and national leaders — there are times when you just need to analyse the cold, hard politics. With less than a month to go until the local election on May 2, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the anti-Street letter was a brutal political hit, designed to undermine the Tory mayor as he seeks re-election.