Leicester Mercury political correspondent
Leicestershire County Council
City council sub-plots
Feb 23rd
Typical. You wait days for a half-decent council meeting then two come along at once.
Both the City and County councils hold their budget-setting council meetings today. I’ll be up at County Hall for 2pm, then zooming back to the town hall for the City’s meet-up at 5pm.
Both budgets are likely to be approved as a formality so it’s worth keeping an eye on some sub-plots instead.
It’s Ross Willmott’s last full-council meeting as leader and it’ll be his likely replacement, finance lead Veejay Patel, who’ll deliver the budget.
Will opposition criticism be directed at the outgoing leader, or will the focus turn to the man many think will replace him?
Two rivals have already emerged as leadership contenders – Mary Draycott and Manish Sood. If they speak to the proposals, their comments will be scrutinised for hints on how they plan to sell their candidacy to fellow Labour members. Could they even try to put some clear blue water between themselves and the front runner by giving some gentle “constructive criticism” on his budget proposals? Unlikely but worth keeping an eye on.
Elsewhere Patrick Kitterick, seen as part of Team Willmott, has been remarkably coy over his leadership ambitions. He was “considering his options” last time the Mercury spoke to him. If he speaks to the proposals, will it include full-throated praise of Willmott’s leadership of the council, or will he attempt to distance himself as he looks to his political future?
With the meeting being effectively a rubber-stamping exercise, the most interesting tidbits will be discovered in the corridors of power before and after the meeting. As ever, if I hear anything, I’ll let you know.
Marginally interesting
Feb 22nd
I grew up in the north east, where the Labour party has a tight grip on most of the region’s constituencies. General elections are more of a formality up there. “Stick a red rosette on anyone and they’ll get elected,” they’d say.
Things are a little bit more exciting here in Leicestershire in the run up to the General Election. Sure, there are safe Labour and Tory seats, but there are also two marginals to watch. They’re both held by Labour, and they’re Tory targets.
But with the Conservatives enjoying a stable 10-point lead over Labour for the past year or so, you could have been forgiven for thinking that a win for Andrew Bridgen in North West Leicestershire and Nicky Morgan in Loughborough was in the bag. And foregone conclusions don’t make for an interesting election campaign.
Tonight’s ICM poll changes that. It is the worst polling result for two years for the Conservatives and their lead has been cut to seven points. It’s the lowest margin they need for a majority in the House of Commons.
For Conservatives it’s bad news. For Labour it’s good news.
But for political journalists everywhere it’s a mouthwatering development – suddenly it’s game on for marginals everywhere.
“Chaos and confusion” on the campaign trail
Feb 17th
If newspapers reported every bit of in-fighting within political parties, there wouldn’t be room for any other news. It’s part of politics.
So a rumpus up in North West Leicestershire among the local Lib Dem branch wouldn’t have been newsworthy – if the national party hadn’t stepped in to shut it down.
I started chasing the story after hearing hazy reports that Coun Michael Wyatt had his membership suspended by his local party. Not quite true, it turned out. The executive had tried to but may have broken the rules. The national party then came in to shut them down. His membership remains untouched.
A morning of phonecalls turned up several conflicting accounts and the local branch appeared to be in confusion and a bit of chaos. I told the Lib Dem national office that this would be the only line I could run with unless we could get clarification of the situation fast.
Fair play to their press office, they fired out a statement saying the branch had been suspended, and I was right.
But then I hit a bizarre brick wall. Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) Professor Paul Reynolds, the man who’ll battle at the next election on behalf of the party and the branch, said he knew nothing about it.
He genuinely didn’t realise the extent of the situation. Even when presented with the party’s statement he insisted there must have been some kind of misunderstanding.
Right up until 5pm on Tuesday he maintained that it was a misunderstanding. He promised to contact Lib Dem HQ – top brass, no less – to clear up the situation.
I told him I’d leave my mobile phone on all night. The story could always be pulled if we got confirmation that it was simply not true, but the call never came.
Prof Reynolds clearly believed his account of the situation which makes the situation even more bizarre: The PPC in a high-profile election battleground was unaware that his local branch had been shut down by the national office.
Perhaps the original line of “chaos and confusion” wasn’t so far off the mark…
