Leicester Mercury political correspondent
Posts tagged Rory Palmer
Soulsby Salary Set To Soar
Nov 15th
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City mayor, his team, and councillors in line for big pay hike
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“There’ll be uproar,” says one politico
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See Wednesday’s Mercury for full story
“Pre-May” spin
Sep 28th
There’s an oft-repeated line from the mayor and deputy mayor these days – “this all happened pre-May”.
It’s a way of focusing reader/interviewer attention on the fact that a council decision was taken before Peter Soulsby took over at May’s local election. “This decision was taken under the previous administration,” they say.
Rory Palmer attempted to use the line at one point when I spoke to him about the Market Corner flop on Monday. It didn’t make the paper because I refuse to be a conduit for this naff spin.
The same party ran the council “pre-May”, with most of the same councillors, and with many of the same people at the top table. Many big decisions were signed off at Labour group. They were all in it together.
33 of Labour’s 52 current councillors sat on the council before May. Three of the mini-mayors sat on the cabinet, as did deputy mayor Rory before he went off to help with Soulsby’s campaign. The previous leader Veejay Patel was hardly a dictator either, and often appeared to be swayed by those around him.
The current mayor even had influence over council policy before he was even elected.
Don’t swallow the spin.
++SOULSBY ANNOUNCES CABINET++
May 9th
Peter Soulsby, Rory Palmer, Vi Dempster, Ted Cassidy, Manjula Sood, Piara Clair, Sarah Russell and Mohammed Dawood
Former cabinet member: “This was the most closely-guarded secret in city politics.”
ALSO: Labour group elected internal positions on Saturday morning. Patrick Kitterick becomes chair; Rita Patel is deputy; Steve Corrall is group secretary, and Barbara Potter remains as chief whip.
Who wants Soulsby’s seat?
Mar 7th
There’s a safe seat up for the grabs in Leicester South, and Rory Palmer is probably the frontrunner.
Abdul Osman tells me he’ll go for the selection but after Saturday’s mediocre showing in the mayoral ballot I don’t rate his chances. Ross Willmott will probably go for it too, and coming second in the party ballot for mayor couldn’t have harmed his credentials.
There’ll be many others.
But Rory laid down his cabinet position and associated salary to successfully campaign for Peter, and loyalty counts for a lot in the Labour Party.
He’s also achingly on message, doesn’t come with any baggage, is relatively media-savvy, likes getting out on the doorstep, and has half-decent connections and profile.
He also picks winners - he backed Ed Miliband to become leader of the Labour party very early on in last year’s campaign, as well as Soulsby for mayor.
Just don’t mention that election result.
Cooke’s care cuts
Jan 30th
Poor Michael Cooke. He’s only been cabinet member for adult services for a couple of weeks but already I’ve got him on speed dial.
He’s the go-to guy for me when it comes to reporting on the most sensitive and emotionally-charged cuts; care homes, day centres, meals for the elderly, care for the disabled.
He’s one of the most up-front and honest councillors I’ve dealt with in the city. When I talk to him he sets out the administration’s position in full, without spin, and gives it his backing.
In a recent interview with the Mercury’s Adam Wakelin he even said: “I’ll be blaming the Tories for closing those homes come election time because I’d be stupid not to.” But while he plans to blame the Tories come election time, right now he’s the man in the firing line of angry old folks and public service union bosses.
It would have been Rory Palmer who faced the hostility, of course, but he resigned six weeks ago to help run Peter Soulsby’s mayoral campaign.
Coincidentally, his resignation meant he didn’t have to make any of the major budget cutbacks. He presided over periods of investment, but when it came to the really bad times a councillor was plucked from the back benches to deliver the bad news to the people of Leicester.
One Labour backbencher told me yesterday that the circumstances could help make any potential bid to become a local MP more straightforward, particularly during the party selection process. ”Rory didn’t have to implement any Tory cuts,” they said.
The next general election is set for 2015, but the opportunity to head to Westminster could arise sooner rather than later. If Peter gets the big mayoral job there’ll be a tantalising vacancy in Leicester South…
Rory Palmer, Peter Soulsby and Leicester South
Dec 14th
He wasn’t pushed, and he wasn’t forced to jump, either.
Instead Rory Palmer quit the city council’s cabinet of his own free will. It’s rare in politics, that.
I tried as hard as I could on Monday afternoon, but I couldn’t uncover a whiff of tension or resentment from any of his colleagues. Senior councillors were as puzzled as me at his departure.
Not for long though. On announcing that he was off to help Sir Peter Soulsby to campaign to become mayor of Leicester, tounges started wagging.
A win for Soulsby – and you’d be made to heavily bet against it at the moment – would open-up a juicy vacancy in parliament.
Who’d be in pole position for that plum job? None other than Rory Palmer, some say.
If that’s the case, he’d have to be confident that he’s onto a winner, he’s given up a £14,000-a-year allowance to work unpaid for Peter.
One Labour party old-hand praised his move on the phone to me last night. “He could easily have hung on to the cabinet role and pretended he was still committed to it, he’s done the honourable thing.” Another was less charitable: “His departure doesn’t surprise me. I doubt he’d want to be associated with the cuts he’d have to impose as cabinet lead.”
But let us set that aside and concentrate on what I believe will become a key opposition point over the coming weeks.
Rory has said he could not carry out a part-time council role effectively while campaigning for Sir Peter, and has quit a full six months before a potential May election.
So will Peter be doing the same and resign? Can he really carry out his full-time role as parliamentarian while campaigning for six months to become mayor?
Power shift
Mar 19th
The significance of a Labour councillor sticking the boot into a senior member of his own party was lost on some of our website commenters.
But John Blackmore’s Twitter digs at cabinet member Andy Connelly over the closure of some council-run bars and creches were about more than just an online spat.
What they show is how power may be shifting under Veejay Patel’s party leadership.
Connelly, who along with Rory Palmer, Sarah Russell and Patrick Kitterick, is seen as part of Team Willmott in the cabinet, could be shuffled out of his top job come Tuesday.
Had his position been completely secure, it’s doubtful that a fellow Labour councillor would thumb his nose at one of the ten most powerful councillors in the city. At least not in public...
11am UPDATE: John hasn’t Tweeted a thing for more than 24 hours. Hope he hasn’t been silenced by party big cheeses.
2.30PM UPDATE: He’s Tweeting again.
Rory’s Battle of Bosworth
Mar 4th
City cabinet member Rory Palmer took part in the Obama campaign over in America back in 2008, so he’s got experience of working for one of the slickest campaigns of modern times. His Parliamentary campaign is currently ticking all the right boxes too.
He’s taking his election fight to the doorsteps of Bosworth in the run-up to the general election, “it’s where it’ll be won and lost,” he says. Many of his tweets are tagged with #LabourDoorstep too, as part of his online Twitter movement.
Winning an election on the doorstep is better than winning an election on the back of a horse, a stunt that once briefly ran through his mind.
“We’ve dubbed this election campaign The Battle of Bosworth, and I had visions of me riding on a horse through Bosworth in a suit of armour. Now that would have been the election stunt to end all election stunts.”
Quite. Luckily his Obama-campaign pedigree got the better of him.
He’s sticking to knocking on doors for the foreseeable future.
