Labour’s candidate for mayor in the West Midlands running against Andy Street has a new promo video out. Richard “Dick” Parker makes some false claims in the first ten seconds of his promotional video.

Despite his patently clear West Country accent he claims to have “lived and worked in the West Midlands all his adult life”.

He’s not from the West Midlands, Parker even boasted on his selection campaign leaflet that he was brought up in Bristol – “Born in Bristol to a dockworking family. Left school at 16 before later going to sixth form and university”. He’s a committed Bristol City supporter, not Aston Villa, Birmingham City, West Brom or Coventry – teams in the West Midlands.

Anyone listening to him knows that he’s not from the West Midlands immediately – so why claim otherwise? Rumour has it that following on from some other regrettable candidate selections Labour insiders are having second thoughts about the candidate they are running against the unusually successful Tory mayor. As in Rochdale, it is too late now he has been selected.

UPDATE:  A co-conspirator gets in touch to tell Guido that Dick lives in Barnt Green, which falls under Worcestershire County Council. Outside of the constituency he wants to represent.

As the country struggles with near double-digit inflation and crippling strikes, one group of taxpayer-funded workers are doing very nicely for themselves. At a meeting of the West Midlands Combined Authority Board:

“It was agreed that the Monitoring Officer should write to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities to request that the West Midlands Combined Authority Order 2016 be further amended to allow the payment of allowances to all members and co-opted members of the WMCA.”

To cut through the jargon: they’re asking the government for a taxpayer-funded blank cheque…

This wasn’t the only cash-grab made by the council, they also “agreed all allowances should be index-linked and increased annually as proposed”. With inflation at its current rate, that will mean thousands of pounds are dished out in near 10% pay rises. Even nurses are being denied the same privilege.

To be fair, West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has committed to turn down his £16,000 bonus. Let’s not give him too much credit, he is a multimillionaire…

Labour’s Liam Byrne struck an unforgiving tone on yesterday’s West Midlands Politics Live, calling out those who have protested during the pandemic, and even backing a stricter response from the police against those who break the spirit and letter of the stay at home rules. Could this be the same Liam Byrne who himself was out protesting just last week, speaking to GMB Union members protesting British Gas?

“I’ve organised a few demos myself in my time, but in the middle of a pandemic? Really? I do think we have all got a responsibility to row in behind the police… we need everybody from the Prime Minister down to be reinforcing both the spirit and the letter of the rules.”

Presumably hypocritical Byrne will be now taking himself off to the West Midlands Police headquarters to hand himself in.

At the weekend Labour’s West Midlands candidates for mayor and police and crime commissioner were busy campaigning. Despite repeated pleas from the candidates for the general public to follow the rules – especially as Birmingham is under stricter measures than much of the country – the rules clearly did not seem to apply to their own campaign. Deputy leader of Birmingham Council Brigid Jones and PCC candidate Simon Foster both merrily advertised themselves breaching the rule of six and social distancing rules. Or has Labour U-turned again on the rule of six after all?

Liam Byrne has defeated former Respect Party Leader Salma Yaqoob and former Dudley Council leader Pete Lowe to become Labour’s candidate for the West Midlands Mayoralty. Despite endorsements from Unite and Momentum, Yaqoob came third. See more about the candidates here…

Congratulations to @liambyrnemp, Labour’s Candidate for Mayor of the West Midlands! pic.twitter.com/JycdLRsUdi

— West Midlands Labour (@WMLabour) February 6, 2020

UPDATE: The votes were as follows: Byrne came first in first preferences (3,105 out of 6,948 valid votes), Lowe was second (with 2,034) and Yaqoob third (1,809). After second preferences were redistributed, Byrne received 56.5% of the vote and Lowe received 43.5%.