Andy Street: West Midlands mayoral win hailed as 'breakthrough' to build on for Tories

The former John Lewis boss said he reigned victorious in the metro mayor election because he substantially ‘closed the gap’ on Labour in its heartlands like Wolverhampton where he was just 4,000 votes behind Sîon Simon.

He said his priorities would now be to build his team, create a taskforce to tackle homelessness, and to hold a summit with regional business leaders on Brexit.

Speaking on his first day in office as he met with the Prime Minister Theresa May in Wolverhampton, he told the Express & Star that votes in the Black Country were ‘absolutely fundamental’ to his electoral success.

He said: “We would not have won this election if we had not done well in every one of the boroughs. So if you compare our result in Wolverhampton and, indeed, in Coventry compared to what we have had before as a party, we did much, much better. We closed the gap.

“Also in the Express & Star’s patch, the results in Walsall and Dudley were truly excellent. I can say we achieved a good enough outcome in each one of the boroughs to win overall – and that was always the strategy.”

Mr Street won big in both Walsall and Dudley while he narrowly trailed Mr Simon in Wolverhampton but lost by some 14,000 votes to Labour in Sandwell.

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While he did not wish to predict the General Election result, he described the win as a ‘breakthrough’ and said he believed the Conservatives would build on the success in the West Midlands rather than it be a one-off.

He said: “Clearly the national political picture has helped us – I cannot take anything away from that – but I don’t think that would have been enough on its own.

"People had looked at our proposals and responded to that and we reached places we hadn’t reached before and we did that with a moderate, inclusive and tolerant form of Conservatism, which I described as urban Conservatism and I genuinely believe people have responded to that message so I do think it was a breakthrough on which we will build.”

Mrs May toured UTC Aerospace Systems with Mr Street in Stafford Road on Saturday after congratulating him on his win.

WATCH: PM joins Andy Street in Wolverhampton

Speaking about his priorities now he is in office, he said: “The West Midlands now has very high expectations now that I have been elected and assuming that Theresa May is Prime Minister we will want to work together so that companies continue to invest in the West Midlands.

“One of the things that has really come out in this election campaign is the passion behind finding a solution to rough sleeping in our cities.

"I will be setting up a taskforce for homelessness and rough sleeping.

"We will also be putting into place all the people who will be critical to us delivering on our big policy areas – and we have also talked about a Brexit summit.

"So I hope to be pulling business leaders together to talk to Government about the issues around Brexit.

“During the campaign we said making a success of Brexit was absolutely critical and this is where our relationship with central government is important. It is not for us to do their bidding – it is for us to make sure they understand what is important for us.”

Mr Street, aged 53, eventually won the election by 3,766 votes. The turnout was 26.68 per cent, which was the third highest sixth worst of the country’s eight Mayoral elections.

During his victory speech Mr Street proclaimed his triumph as the ‘rebirth of the new urban Conservative agenda’.

And he told the Express & Star that he was intent on maintaining a strong relationship with the Government in order to get the best devolution deal for the West Midlands.

Mr Street was supported by a number of Tory big hitters in the run up to the election, with Mrs May, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Chancellor Philip Hammond among those to visit the region.

He said that he had discussed the region’s connection to Westminster with the Prime Minister when she visited Birmingham recently.

“I have got to make sure I build that alliance, that working relationship with government to really get the most for this region,” he added.

Mr Street received 216,280 first preference votes and came out ahead in Dudley, Walsall and Solihull. Mr Simon got 210,259 votes and won Wolverhampton, Coventry, Birmingham and Sandwell.

The gap was closed slightly once second preferences were taken into account but it was not enough for the Labour candidate.

Mr Simon has been keen to remind people of his opponent’s spending on the campaign, which was set around the £1 million mark.

He said: “We won in Birmingham, in Coventry, in Wolverhampton, in Sandwell, but unfortunately the Tories spent millions of pounds to which we don’t have access or access to even a fraction of it.

“The other thing though is even in areas where we did win there was a message coming back from a significant number of Labour voters they are not confident we are strong enough as a party in their core Labour values and that is a message we need to learn as the Labour party.”

Lib Dem Beverley Nielsen came third on 30,378 votes with UKIP’s Pete Durnell in fourth with 29,051., while Green Party candidate James Burn received 24,260 votes and the Communist Party’s Graham Stevenson got 5,696.

The West Midlands Mayor will have a ‘small office’ in central Birmingham as well as bases in Wolverhampton and the Black Country, and Coventry.