Iron Angle: Not so simple for Sion Simon
You could hardly say that the prospect of Birmingham City Council being run by a Boris or Ken London-style directly elected mayor has galvanised either politicians or voters.
As things stand, there is only one declared candidate for what on paper ought to be one of the most desirable roles in local government. Sion Simon, the former Labour MP for Erdington, announced a year ago his intention to quit parliament so that he could launch a campaign to become mayor.
Mr Simon pretty much maintained a dignified vow of silence for 12 months, putting his own slightly eccentric stamp on what must be one of the most low-key electoral contests in the long history of election campaigns.
This week, he ventured off the ropes to put a little flesh on the bones of his manifesto. No great surprise to hear that he wants to do away with nasty, divisive politics, in favour of some kind of grand coalition including local business panjandrums based on a platform of economic development, job creation and celebrating Birmingham’s multi-cultural identity. Good luck on that one, then.
It’s a kind of motherhood and apple pie pledge, and who on earth could disagree with it? However, the word I am getting from influential Labour figures in this city is that most people are finding it extremely difficult to take Mr Simon’s bid for power seriously.
How, they ask, can someone with limited experience as an MP and a very short period in Government as Creative Industries Minister expect to get Labour’s nomination for mayor when there ought to be a number of far better qualified candidates?
It’s not, they argue, even the case that Mr Simon is a charismatic figure in the manner of Boris Johnson or Ken Livingstone. His main claim to fame, apart from being involved in an abortive coup against Tony Blair, was to pretend to be David Cameron in an ill-judged webcam joke deemed by many to be poor taste in the extreme.
The problem with the Birmingham mayoral “campaign” is that the initiative is being driven chiefly by the Prime Minister with lukewarm support, one suspects, from some members of his own cabinet and certainly outright hostility from almost all of Birmingham’s 120 city councillors who long ago sussed the fact that they would be deprived of any power or influence if the local authority was to be run by an elected mayor.
There is, of course, one significant player with a long history of backing city mayors who has been biding his time. Enter Sir Albert Bore, leader of the council’s opposition Labour group, who this week reveals for the first time that his “hat will be in the ring” against Mr Simon for selection as mayoral candidate. Overnight, therefore, a strictly bantamweight event has been turned into a heavyweight contest.
As things stand, and at the risk of inducing my old pal Paul Burke of Sutton Coldfield to suffer a seizure, only someone with more money than sense would bet against Sir Albert’s chances of winning both the nomination and becoming Labour mayor of Birmingham in 2012.
