This morning Leicester residents woke up to a row between the mayor and ex-leader, about scrutiny, in the Mercury.

And if they’d switched on their radio while eating their cornflakes they’d have heard the pair duelling on BBC Leicester over the city’s art gallery.

Political rows are a staple of political debate at any level, and friction between the mayor and ex-leader is to be expected. It’s all grist to the mill for local media.

But it’s how quickly the ill will has spilled out into the public arena that has surprised me.

A sift through the picture archive uncovered this snap from more than a decade ago.

Both the chinos, and public veneer of comradeliness, are now long gone.

Assistant mayor Sarah Russell’s support for Ross Willmott’s mayoral campaign remained on his website long after the campaign ended in the spring.

Today it was removed, at her request, in response to Willmott’s blog post which I highlighted yesterday.

Sarah said: “As he has attacked me publicly for something which is false, I felt I could no longer have my support for him listed on the website.”

When Ross Willmott failed to win the Labour nomination to become candidate for mayor of Leicester, I expected that his dedicated campaign website would wither and die.

How wrong I was.

He still uses it to vent from time to time, and his latest blog post is, in my view, an extraordinary broadside at three party colleagues.

Discussing the second overview committee last week he scoffs at former leader Veejay Patel’s reason for not appearing to explain the redundancy of the chief finance officer in April.

“No show ‘he had a cold’,” Ross observed.

He then turns to assistant mayor Sarah Russell.

“We also requested Cllr Russell to attend to explain why she had blocked staff from transferring full time to scrutiny, preventing the resourcing of scrutiny promised by the city mayor. Again no show. Perhaps more cold….feet? or did the Mayor tell her not come?”

It’s quite a suggestion about a party colleague, and there’s more:

“Later in the meeting we learnt that Peter Soulsby had intervened to prevent officers from the finance dept from attending the meeting. Despite a specific request to have them there, and their agreement to attend the meeting.

“…we have heard from Soulsby over and over again that propriety, openness, inclusiveness and robust scrutiny are highly valued and in his view were lacking of late in Leicester.  He therefore gave assurances throughout his campaign and since his election that scrutiny will be independent, transparent, robust, and fully resourced.

“Well, the last meeting raised serious questions about Soulsby’s commitment to any of these principles.

“The committee agreed that in future finance officers as well as legal advisors will attend every meeting. Making it clear that it is not the mayor who decides who should attend.”

These are snippets of the post. Do read the whole thing.

Now, friction between the former leader and the mayor is to be expected. After all, it’s Ross’s job to scrutinise Sir Peter’s actions.

The tough tone Ross uses, however, is surprising. It’s also encouraging.

I have doubts about the effectiveness of some scrutiny members. Some councillors by nature do not wish to rock the boat. Many want a cabinet position. It happens at all councils, not just Leicester. It’s the trouble with scrutiny.

It seems that for many councillors it’s difficult to separate party responsibilities from their duties to the people of the city.

Last year on scrutiny Ross showed some promising signs when it came to putting aside party loyalty for the good of city. Now, it appears, he’s relishing his chairmanship and quite rightly setting aside party loyalties when scrutinising.

It’s the robust scrutiny that Sir Peter promised…

Draft plans for seating arrangements for the new municipal year will see me moved from my perch at the back, behind talkative Ross Willmott and co.

Instead, I’ve been asked to sit behind Conservative Ross Grant on the old opposition benches.

I can, of course, decline and take my old seat depending on where the interesting Labour characters are placed. But that’s a decision I’ll make another day.

One thing is for sure – when I joked on election day that I was now the official opposition, I didn’t expect to be joining the opposition benches.

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.

Veejay Patel 14

Sir Peter Soulsby 12

Ross Willmott 7

Abdul Osman 5

Rita Patel 0

Vote takes place on March 5. Read more here

Firebrand ex-cabinet member Andy Connelly, shouty councillor Anne Glover, pretentious website owner Sundip Meghani, giggling Neil Clayton and returning cabinet member Michael Cooke are all behind the campaign to make Willmott mayor of Leicester.

Councillor count is relatively low, though, so he’s used his website to list other “key supporters” from the Labour Party including Sarah Brack, Dave Brazier, Brian and Pat Roberts and Lucy Chaplin.

All very positive. Although just a touch less impressive that it looks. It’s little wonder that he’s secured the endorsement of “key supporter” Ms Chaplin.

She is, after all, Ross’s partner.

UPDATE: It’s worth pointing out that Lucy is also Labour candidate for Stoneygate at the local elections in May, and therefore a political figure in her own right.

Sarah Russell knitted, Patrick Kitterick tried and failed to complete a sudoku, and Ross Willmott thumbed a novel.

It’s easy to tune out at full council as Parmjit Gill asks streams of questions which could have been cleared up weeks earlier with a quick call to council officers.

But it was Willmott’s reading material that distracted me. A book called The Folding Knife by K J Parker.

The book’s synopsis reads:

Basso the Magnificent. Basso the Great. Basso the Wise. Basso the Murderer.

The First Citizen of the Vesani Republic is an extraordinary man. He is ruthless, cunning and, above all, lucky.

He brings wealth, power and prestige to his people. But with power comes unwanted attention, and Basso must defend his nation and himself from threats foreign and domestic.

In a lifetime of crucial decisions, he’s only ever made one mistake. One mistake, though, can be enough.

One wonders whether Basso’s one mistake was deciding to run for a county parliamentary seat while trying to hold down his position within the, er, republic.

Over the relatively quiet Christmas period the Mercury ran a story on Ross Willmott’s new campaign website.

It was newsworthy because it was the first visible sign of any campaign getting underway. It’s unlikely that every new website from potential candidates will get the same, limited, coverage.

Features desk also ran a two-page spread, but it was no puff piece. It highlighted his alleged ousting as leader of the council and dwelled on his year of political loss in 2010.

I followed my own story up on this blog with a brief overview of some negative comments about Ross on the Mercury website.

Unfortunately this neutral coverage has rattled some cages in the Labour camp. In an episode which highlighted a certain amount of nervousness among the ranks of potential mayoral candidates, a prominent contender called me today and said:

“I see you’re giving Ross a lot of coverage in the paper. I expect the same further down the line. I didn’t realise the Mercury had decided to back Ross Willmott. When did that happen?”

This was a day the likes of Patrick Kitterick and Andy Connelly thought they would never see: the day the Mercury was accused of being biased in favour of Ross Willmott.