Leicester City Council cabinet – Monday, 1pm

Awkward fidgeting. Eyes darting around. “He’s coming,” they whispered, “Peter’s here,” they cooed in the council chamber.

I’d met him outside already. Sir Peter Soulsby strode across town hall square towards the town hall entrance for Monday’s cabinet meeting. ”I need to remind myself how these things work,” he chuckled.

If all goes to plan he’ll be running the authority in eight weeks.

He sauntered into the council chamber just before 1pm as councillors and senior officers prepared for the fortnightly rubber-stamping of key decisions.

At the top of the cabinet table sat glum-faced Veejay Patel – thwarted by Soulsby just 48 hours earlier – with Vi Dempster, his running mate, to his right.

To his left sat Sheila Lock. Word is that Peter wants an overhaul of senior management. And she’s the most senior manager. Gulp.

As Sir Peter walked in she kept a poker face and appeared to stare straight ahead. So did Veejay. So did Vi. The trio sat for a ten seconds, all motion suspended. It wasn’t a calculated snub, it was a moment of awkwardness.

One cabinet member – a known supporter of Veejay – rolled their eyes in the direction of Peter before mouthing something towards me.

Peter took a seat to the left-hand side of the action which is actually Parmjit Gill’s usual full council seat. It’s the second seat he’s taken from Mr Gill in five years.

Union man Gary Garner – backer of Soulsby – sat on the opposite side of the chamber. His attendance at cabinet is occasional. Last time he was seen in the council chamber was last month, bellowing from the public gallery at Ross Grant. This time he was on his best behaviour.

The meeting itself was uneventful in terms of substance, but it was the subtleties that made this fascinating.

An item on strip clubs presented by Sarah Russell couldn’t divert my attention from the occasional awkward glance between Veejay and Peter. A city centre parking policy was no match for the way Veejay supporters emphasised the word leader when addressing him a little more than usual.

The final item on the agenda was to be held in private session. Only elected council politicos and officers were to stay. The press and public were told to scarper.

It felt strange, but that included Peter.

None of the councillor would have looked twice if he’d stayed, their minds have already turned to May 6.

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

On his list of useful telephone numbers the UK Border Agency is misspelled as the UK Boarding Agency.

I thought nothing more of it until a a photoshopped photograph landed in my inbox yesterday, from the supporter of a rival campaign, with the subject line:

Who ya gonna call? The UK Boarding Agency!

Photo credit: “Snack Capital”

Earlier this week I speculated that Veejay Patel would use the fact that he was born in Leicester against rival Peter Soulsby, who was born in the north east.

It’s now quite obvious that I was right. A 2011 promotional calendar from Veejay landed on my desk this morning, and it trumpets his birthplace quite prominently underneath his photo on the right-hand side.

He clearly thinks that it’ll give him the edge with Labour members against Bishop Auckland-born Soulsby.

A north east-born bloke poking his nose into Leicester city politics? It’ll never work…

(I’m from South Shields, Tyneside.)

City council budget briefing day on Wednesday. Glum faces. Chief executive and head of finance did the detail while Veejay Patel, Vi Dempster and Mohammed Dawood did the politics. Press man Mark Bentley looked on.

On the subject of controversial changes to staff contracts Veejay used his gravest of tones. “This is not something we would have chosen to do.” Among the changes was the removal of free parking spaces for some staff. All part of sharing the burden of the cuts, the councillors nodded.

Then time for my zinger: “You know the car park for councillors underneath New Walk Centre? Will you be charging for that?”

An uncomfortable mumble from some of those present. One officer grinned.

Dawood: “Sorry I missed the question.”

Veejay responded: “Er, no.”

“But is it at least under consideration?” I pressed.

“We can look at that yes,” Veejay said, quickly scribbling down the suggestion.

Don’t hold your breath on that one, folks. The full council would have to vote it through, and turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.

It’s where the Labour Party will attempt to get the ball rolling towards a planned elected mayor system for the city.

Tory opposition leader Ross Grant has repeatedly criticised the haste – including in a strongly-worded open-letter to Veejay Patel last week.

So what better way to provoke his wrath than by scheduling one of the most important council meetings of the year for the same days as his beloved Tigers taking on Harlequins.

Richard and Stacie Newton were being given the prestigious honoured citizens award on Tuesday afternoon for their part in helping to close a neighbourhood drugs den.

Their inspiring story of standing up for community values struck a chord with him, and he was enjoying his time entertaining them in the parlour on Tuesday afternoon.

Council officials entered – cynics would say they’d chosen a time when he was at his most unguarded – asking him to give the nod to an emergency council meeting.

The emergency meeting would be used to mark the start of an attempt by Labour to ram through a last-minute consultation process in preparation for installing an all-powerful elected mayor next May.

These things are usually a formality. The officers must have fancied their chances. To an outside observer, it would look like he was being bounced.

But he wasn’t ready to accede to them. He did what any responsible mayor would have done.

“I’d like to see the constitution before deciding,” he said.

And that’s where the trouble began.

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The previous evening, the city’s Labour councillors had met for their regular group meeting.

In essence, this group meeting is about as powerful as the monthly assembly of all councillors.

With a chunky majority in the chamber, what they say goes.

After a blog post by myself on the issue of elected mayors, and a feature on last Sunday’s politics show, anticipation had built for the vote on whether to have a directly elected leader of the city.

Whichever way the vote went would help shape the city’s political scene for years to come.

One cabinet member, Paul Westley, had already broken cover. He’d told the BBC he was against the idea – but leader Veejay Patel had made up his mind and pushed for consensus.

The vote was carried, but by a smaller margin than expected. Councillors who’d left the four-hour meeting early could have made the vote even closer.

Deputy leader Vi Dempster, Veejay’s right-hand woman, was one of more than ten councillors who voted against the plan.

All was not well. Things needed to be pushed through quickly.

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It needn’t have been such a rush.

Many councils carried out and completed the consultation process months ago. Leicester City Council’s was a last minute rush job.

Why? Some claim former leader Ross Willmott put it on the back-burner for too long. But Veejay has been in office for nine months. Many don’t buy that line.

A proposal almost universally opposed by most party figures – save for Sir Peter Soulsby – just a few weeks ago was suddenly gaining support in the run-up to this week’s vote.

Why? Everything in politics happens for a reason. Whispers began that some sort of deal had been done.

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Some have asked: “Why would Peter Soulsby want to be mayor of Leicester? He’s an MP is Parliament on a chunky salary.”

Because it would make him the second most powerful directly elected politician in the country, and the most powerful politician Leicester has ever had.

Expect an elected mayor’s salary to quickly rise, too. The workload is much more significant than that of council leader – an independent pay panel will no doubt find – further down the line, before hiking the salary.

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To ram through a decision before the December 31 deadline, and avoid the plan biting the dust, a consultation must be carried out. It needs to be raised as an issue at three full council meetings before a decision can be made. The first to start the consultation, the second to hear the results, and the third to rubber-stamp any decision.

Colin Hall’s stance on the emergency meeting – he was still rightly or wrongly concerned about constitutional issues – was blocking the leadership’s attempt to start the consultation.

Without the meeting, the plans of the party’s influencers would be scuppered.

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A brief word of background here. Colin Hall is one of the Labour councillors who is against the elected mayor idea.

In the past, he hasn’t seen eye-to-eye with Soulsby, the current favourite to win any mayoral election.

“He sees Soulsby as partly responsible for his years when he wasn’t on the council,” one of his colleagues told me.

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The situation culminated with a day of arm-twisting on Thursday. Allies of Veejay say he had to step up and show leadership.

Whether he’s acted rightly or wrongly in the past 24 hours, no-one can argue that he showed leadership. He also showed a ruthless streak, which could come in handy during any mayoral election.

Formidable whip Barbara Potter was dispatched to persuaded the Lord Mayor to change his mind.

Those close to Veejay admitted that they could easily circumvent the mayor by asking four councillors to sign a document forcing a meeting to be held. But there was never any plan to do that. It would have been embarrassing and signalled a crippling weakness in Veejay’s authority.

“Every option is open if we don’t get our way on this.” one party high-flyer confided. Hours of silence then ensued.

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At 4pm my mobile-phone buzzed with a text. “It’s all back on. Emergency meeting is on November 19. Now we’re moving…”

Veejay Patel, May 21: “The leader and cabinet model that is well established in this city. In this city all politicians like to engage in the decision-making process. It is the model that we have at the moment that ensures that happens, more so than the

Veejay Patel, November 8: “An elected mayor will give power back to the people, rather than politicians. The public votes will give an elected mayor the mandate to get things done.”

UPDATE: A few people wondering why Veejay has been picked out when so many of the Labour group appear to have changed their minds over the mayor issue. It’s just because he’s the leader and the man at the top. Happy to make it clear that many others, including Ross Willmott for example, have also pulled amazing u-turns.

So it’s official. We’re heading towards an elected mayor for Leicester, and we’ll probably be going to the polls next May to choose who leads the city.

Sir Peter Soulsby confirmed to me last night that he’ll run for the Labour nomination – and he also told me that he won’t do a Ken Livingstone and run as an independent if he doesn’t win the nomination, as some rumours had suggested.

Ross Willmott has stepped forward to throw his hat into the ring. Last week I wondered whether he would stand at all, as he hadn’t made much noise on the matter.

He tells me he didn’t want to move sooner as it would have looked like a “challenge” to Veejay’s leadership, which he wanted to avoid.

As for the current leader, he got a bit coy when I asked whether he’d stand, but it’s clear that he’s very likely to. The only reason he can’t declare himself as a candidate yet is to avoid the image of him pre-empting the outcome of the public consultation. Abdul Osman is yet to comment.

But that’s just four names. One Labour cabinet member told me that he predicts that at least six people will be in the running for the Labour nomination. Soulsby thinks it could be even higher.

But while you mull over the Labour names in the frame, independents are rousing from their slumber.

Don’t forget that a third of the elected mayors in Britain are independents who’ve capitalised on a public distaste for mainstream politics. This field is going to be one to watch.

One city mover and shaker has already telephoned me this morning today to say: “I’m in.”

Word on the street is that Sir Peter Soulsby has picked up the backing of the some of the party’s key local influencers [read Keith Vaz] for his planned run at becoming Leicester’s elected mayor.

Privately, the two main opposition parties concede that whoever gets the Labour nomination is odds-on favourite to become the high-profile leader of the city, and you’d be mad not to put your money on Sir Peter.

But Soulsby’s likely candidacy is already well-known. He’s at Leicester town hall more than me these days.

So who else would throw their hat into the ring? There’s Veejay Patel, who I’d mark down as second-favourite in any race. Despite preferring to be a lower-profile council leader, it would make sense for him to use his incumbency to his advantage. He’s had a pretty steady few months at the helm of the council, with no policy gaffes so far.

Ignore those who persist in bringing up Keith Vaz’s name – the home affairs select committee chair would be taking a step down to run. Soulsby is in a bit of a different position as a relatively anonymous backbencher.

Meanwhile if Ross Willmott was going to stand he’d have probably made it known before now, but don’t rule it out. Although he’s presumably got his eye on the vacant Leicester South seat should Soulsby become mayor.

Manish Sood is suspended by the party, six months since his attack on Gordon Brown, so you needn’t worry about a bizarre run from him.

However the latest name in the frame, whispered to me by a contact on my mobile as I jogged along the canal this morning, is regeneration chief Abdul Osman.

“He fancies his chances,” my source confided, “so don’t rule him out.” This blogger rates Abdul, but isn’t convinced he could win the selection.

Tell me what you know, in confidence, using davidmaclean@leicestermercury.co.uk