Tory West Midlands mayor 14 points behind Labour rival in new Sunak setback

The Conservative mayor of the West Midlands is 14 points behind his Labour rival just weeks before the May 2 mayoral election, a new poll has found.

In a fresh blow to Rishi Sunak shortly before the local elections, Andy Street is polling at 28 per cent, compared to 42 per cent for Richard Parker, his Labour rival.

The Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll found that Elaine Williams, the Reform UK candidate, is third on 13 per cent.

The fortunes of Mr Street, elected the first West Midlands mayor in 2017, will be seen as a bellwether for Conservative fortunes in the general election this year.

Mr Street and Ben Houchen, the Tory Tees Valley mayor, will provide an early indication of Mr Sunak’s chances of holding onto voters in key battlegrounds.

Losing one or both risks a significant backlash from backbenchers, as MPs could see that a change in direction for the party is needed to avoid total electoral wipeout.

The poor polling for Mr Street comes despite his attempts to distance himself from the Conservative Party in Westminster and rely on what he has described as “Brand Andy”.

Nationally, he is still polling ahead of the Conservative Party, which has been consistently around 20 percentage points behind Labour.

He has spoken out against the party on such key issues as the fate of the northern leg of HS2, which Mr Sunak announced would be scrapped at the Conservative Party conference last October.

Mr Street led the Tory backlash against the decision and even considered quitting the party before deciding to stay, saying: “By walking away you don’t actually achieve anything for the people who elected me to do a job.”

The former John Lewis director will go up against Mr Parker, a former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers who advised on the creation of the West Midlands Combined Authority.

Philip van Scheltinga,the  director of research at Redfield & Wilton, said that despite Mr Street being a “well liked” politician, he was struggling against the backdrop of a national party struggling in the polls.

“Our poll finds Andy Street overperforming the Conservative Party, but the party’s brand is so damaged that even strong independently-minded candidates like him are being put in a losing position,” he said.

“Street is well liked, but Westminster and Sunak are seen as primarily responsible for the state of things. Voters are therefore reluctant to send a message of positive feedback to Sunak and the Conservatives in Parliament through a vote for Street.

“If Street comes back from this losing position, it will be because he will have found a way to turn out Conservative-minded voters who have few reasons to vote Conservative at this moment.”

A poll shortly before Mr Street’s re-election in 2021 put him nine percentage points ahead of Liam Byrne, his Labour rival.

He went on to beat Mr Bryne by that margin in the first round of voting in 2021, winning the mayoralty by eight points once votes had been reallocated in the second round.

Nadine Dorries, the former Cabinet minister, said of the poll: “It doesn’t matter what you say or do, you can’t beat the swing. Thank you Rishi Sunak for all you have done for the Conservative Party.”