‘If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans’. So goes the old Jewish proverb. Having been selected to be the Labour candidate in the newly-created Bristol North East constituency, Lewisham’s Mayor, Damien Egan was beginning to gear up to fight this newly created seat at the next General Election. This wasn’t going to be until May at the earliest and probably not until October. Then, out of the blue, Chris Skidmore, the Conservative MP for Kingswood, one of the old Bristol seats that is disappearing, resigns. The Labour High Command select Mayor Egan as the Party’s candidate for the resulting by-election in around a month’s time. This necessitates Damien’s resignation as Mayor of Lewisham which, in turn, requires a by-election to be held to replace him. So, all of a sudden, what was thought to be a gentle jog towards a transition to a new Mayoralty for Lewisham, has been turned into a full-on sprint to an unexpectedly early finish line around a month from now. And to be ready to run in that race, the Labour Party, along with other political parties, will have to select its candidate.
The sound of the gun going off to signal the start of a race
months earlier than many had expected caused me to reflect upon my own kamikaze
run to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor back in 2017. I came last by some considerable margin behind
the front runners. One of my lasting
memories of that campaign was to have my manifesto described as like ‘War and
Peace’ on social media (apologies to Tolstoy fans everywhere). The other was when my business partner came
back from a meeting
with Tom Watson, then Shadow
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and told me that
someone had described my campaign as ‘rather uninspiring’. Politics can be a brutal business.
Thinking about that contest, which seems
like a lifetime ago now, I went back and had a look at my hustings speech. One of the things I said stands out for me:
The selection process is the means by which we choose our candidate to run a billion pound organisation and be its public face. You're not being asked to select some kind of super community campaigner or civic mayor. It's a real job. For a real leader.
This is truer now that it was then,
following an additional 6 years of Tory Austerity.
I think that people still do not
appreciate this fact. The job of a
directly elected Mayor is not what most people seem to imagine. When they think of a Mayor, they tend to
think of someone, perhaps of advancing years, who, following a lifetime of
service on the Council, exercises ceremonial role within the borough and an ambassadorial
role outside it. When performing this
function, they imagine the Mayor as always resplendent in their robes and chain
of office.
The role of a directly-elected
Mayor is very different. Which is why, incidentally,
they are paid far more than the civic Mayors which most other boroughs have,
currently £80,759 in Lewisham. Directly-elected
Mayors have to exercise executive political power. In short, they have to run a multi-billion pound
business in the public interest. This is
not just about repairing roads, emptying the bins and managing parks. It’s about running huge service areas like
social services for both adults and children, services that it is no
exaggeration to say are a matter of life and death for some people.
I think that the role of a directly
elected, or executive, Mayor has best been described by my friend, long-time
colleague and Lewisham Labour Legend, Cllr John Muldoon:
Being an executive Mayor demands a skillset unlike any other role. Someone who can and will lead, not someone who says they lead. Our local leader. Someone with vision. Someone with integrity. Someone respected by and who respects all our communities. Someone with the competence to steer Lewisham over the coming years, years of great austerity for Lewisham Council. Someone with the agility to deliver great change for Lewisham, whilst never forgetting our duty to the weak, the vulnerable, the poor. Someone ready to seize the opportunities the next Labour Government will bring, whenever that may be.
When deciding who to vote for in the forthcoming election to
select Labour’s candidate for the up-and-coming Lewisham Mayoral by-election,
Labour Party members should have this is mind.
I believe that members should approach this decision as they would the
decision of what school to send their child.
In whom do you have the most confidence to deliver the best outcome for
you, your loved ones and your community.
Ultimately, you have to make a hard-headed decision about trust and
competence.
This is why, as a former Cabinet Member for Resources, I am backing Amanda De Ryk to be our next Labour Mayor
of Lewisham. As well as having the empathy and compassion to
be a great civic leader and champion of the people, she has the operational competence
to run the Council to deliver for the residents of our borough. I believe that she has the qualities that
will inspire our people to have confidence, both in their Mayor, and in the Council she
leads.
Compassion. Competence. Confidence
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