Leicester Mercury political correspondent
Posts tagged Ross Willmott
Willmott, Kitterick and Connelly return to the backbenches
Mar 25th
When you’re ousted from one of the biggest jobs in city politics, where do you choose to sit on your return the back-benches?
Right in front of the press seats, of course!
Cllrs Ross Willmott, Patrick Kitterick and Andy Connelly have settled in to the three seats at the back – the furthest they can physically be from the new cabinet, and the closest seats to the media.
To the online observer, the meeting would have looked run of the mill, but the atmosphere was charged.
Andy and Ross took up the role of Statler and Waldorf, bouncing barbs about other councillors off each other throughout the meeting. Patrick, meanwhile, filled in a Guardian crossword puzzle and a Sudoku.
The boisterous behaviour at the back eventually led Labour chief whip Barbara Potter to stride over, telling them to be quiet.
“Go away,” replied Ross dismissively, as he scrolled through his Blackberry emails, making Potter even more annoyed.
The next 12 months at city council will be intriguing.
Leicester political gossip – now on the iPhone
Mar 16th
They can’t get enough of this blog…
Outgoing city council leader Ross Willmott reads it, city opposition leader Ross Grant comments on it. Newly-selected Labour leader Veejay Patel says: “Everyone’s reading it.”
Up at County Hall, officers and politicians alike keep up to date with political maneuverings and gossip here.
But it’s not always convenient to log on. If you’re not near your laptop it can take an age to load this website on an iPhone.
Never fear. I’m always looking for new ways to engage folks with the local political scene, and now you can log on in double-quick time.
Visit the blog using your iPhone at the usual address and you’ll get a simple interface (right) which takes seconds to load. The content is still the same.
Away at a seaside conference? Down the pub after committee? Log on using your iPhone – same address, just quicker.
Leadership observations
Feb 25th
For a leadership contender, Manish Sood is awfully quiet. He didn’t say a word at full council on Wednesday. Another contender, Mary Draycott, didn’t say anything on the budget and instead got into a fair old flap with the opposition over the Walkers Stadium Market. I don’t know who came off worse, to be honest.
Veejay Patel, as expected, spoke quite a lot. He’s the finance lead, after all, so he had to deliver the budget. Plenty of little jibes at the opposition, gearing up for the possibility of becoming leader. Give the troops what they want.
But did anyone step forward to rally the troops? Perhaps with a little bit of opposition-bashing to throw some meat to party faithful? Yes indeed. Step forward, Stephen Corrall. “It’s getting like a leadership beauty contest, this,” announced Lib Dem leader Pete Coley with a smile after Stephen had a right old pop at the Tory and Lib Dem benches.
But a partisan tubthumper until the last, Ross Willmott delivered some of the most withering put-downs of the night.
He scolded Hussein Suleman for an “empty-headed rant”, said he never expected to see the day the Conservative group put forward a council tax rise which was higher than Labour, and even corrected a claim that he had “four minutes left” in his post as the meeting drew to a close.
Wagging a finger he said: “I’m council Labour leader until the 15th, actually.” He’s a stickler for the details, that Ross.
11am UPDATE: The comment by Ross in the comments section is, of course, correct. The positions of leader of the Labour group and leader of the council are two separate things. Happy to clarify that he will be leader of the group until March 15, but leader of the council until March 25. Complicated this, isn’t it readers?
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.
Et tu, Brute?
Feb 17th
Outgoing City council leader Ross Willmott will give up the hotseat on March 15. The runners and riders are already making their moves for his chair. The significance of his departure date wasn’t really noticed at the time, but his reign ends on the Ides of March, the day Julius Caesar was bumped-off by fellow politicians – including his close friend Brutus.
