Coronation Street star Tracy Brabin wants to run West Yorkshire.
She’s thrown her bonnet in the ring to become Labour candidate for the county’s first directly elected mayor.
I can’t imagine why. Ms Brabin, 59, £80,000-a-year MP for Batley and Spen in succession to murdered Jo Cox, is doing quite well as Shadow Culture Industries Secretary.
Tracy – formerly the dizzy waitress Sandra in A Bit Of A Do – could reasonably expect to be in Sir Keir Starmer’s first Cabinet, the acme of any politician’s ambition.
Instead, the self-styled “council estate kid” promises to “reach for the stars” from lockdown Leeds.
West Yorkshire will elect a Metro Mayor next May, instead of a One Yorkshire leader for all five million, an aspiration ruthlessly crushed by the Tories.
We now have a glorified Leeds City Region, taking in Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees (Huddersfield) and Calderdale (Halifax).
This was Hobson’s Choice, served with a threat of lower funding if it was rejected.
Local politicians, reeling from a decade of Conservative cuts, had no alternative but to accept. It will take a strong, regionally grounded personality to make the set-up work.
Step forward Susan Hinchcliffe, Labour leader of Bradford City Council, and chair of the county’s combined authority. Fortunately, she’s not backward in coming forward (as we say) and has just declared her candidacy.
All five of West Yorkshire’s councils are Labour-controlled, but the Tories still think they can win this big political prize.
It’s all part of their cynical, underhand gameplan to take power in parts of the country where they haven’t a hope in hell of winning councils.
Sensible Susan, currently fighting the toughest Covid challenge amid praise of “superb leadership” from Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, would be England’s first woman Metro Mayor.
She’s the one for me, and fellow Tykes.
