Review of the year: West Midlands was crucial as political landscape turned upside down
As Sir Keir Starmer took to the stage in the Black Country, he spoke of his disappointment that it was the local rather than General Election campaign he was launching.
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
The Labour leader told an audience of party loyalists that he had booked the venue in Dudley in the expectation that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was about to go to the country.
He had to content himself with using the speech in March to launch Labour's campaign for the council and mayoral elections - but the West Midlands would prove crucial to his success when finally securing the keys to No. 10 Downing Street a few months later.
Ironically, Dudley Council was the one local authority that stubbornly eluded his grasp, as Labour made sweeping gains around the country in the election on May 2.
The Conservatives brought former naval reservist and Leader of the House of Commons into the fray, for breakfast at a cafe in Penn, Wolverhampton, before joining local councillors in doing a spot of canvassing.
The Express & Star held its own hustings for the mayoral race, with five of the six candidates taking questions from readers at the event at Wolverhampton University.
The elections saw Labour take control of Cannock Chase Council, which they had been running with a minority administration, and Lichfield City Council. They strengthened their grip on Wolverhampton, and deprived the Conservatives of their majority in Dudley. But the party made little impression in Walsall, where the Conservatives comfortably held control.
For Labour, though, the icing on the cake came the following Saturday,. when it was announced Richard Parker had ousted the incumbent West Midland mayor Andy Street by the narrowest of margins. Mr Parker who had joined Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner on the stage at Dudley, pipped Conservative Mr Street by less than a third of a percentage point to take over the role of mayor.
Mr Street, the former chief executive of John Lewis, was first elected mayor in 2017, and became one of the most high-profile regional leaders in the country. The previous October he had considered resigning the Conservative whip in protest at the Government's dropping of the HS2 link to Manchester. But he decided to stick with the party and came within a hair's breadth of retaining his seat.
Mr Parker said tackling youth unemployment and bringing bus services under public control would be his priorities on taking office. At a press conference at Wolverhampton bus station on May 14, he put the flesh on the bones. The new mayor announced plans to introduce a rail-style franchise system, where private operators would be invited to tender for services that would be managed by the West Midlands Combined Authority.
The day before, Mr Parker had joined Sir Keir, Mrs Rayner, and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves for an event at Willenhall-based transport training company GTG. He was one of 11 Labour regional mayors who were now in charge following the May elections. During the visit, Sir Keir told the Express & Star that he would take nothing for granted when the General Election finally came.
