Save the PM? I'm the guy who's going to save the West Midlands! Mayor Andy ... trends now
Andy Street has a lot on his shoulders. With the Conservatives trailing 20 points in the national polls, he faces the fight of his political life to cling on to the West Midlands mayoralty he has held since its creation in 2017.
But the fate of the former John Lewis boss next month could also determine whether Rishi Sunak makes it to the next election without facing a leadership challenge from his increasingly demoralised MPs.
A heavy Tory defeat in the local elections on May 2 is already 'priced in' by many, with experts predicting the party could lose 500 seats – half of those it is defending.
But the consensus view at Westminster is that the debate on Mr Sunak's future could pass a tipping point if the Conservatives also lose in the West Midlands and in Teesside, where fellow Tory mayor Ben Houchen won by a landslide in 2021.
Asked whether he is the guy who is going to save the Prime Minister, Mr Street laughed and replied: 'I'm the guy who's going to save the West Midlands, that is my way of looking at it.' The contest is 'a local election first and foremost', he said.
Defiant: In the face of a Tory wipeout, Andy Street plans to come out fighting on May 2
But he conceded there is more riding on the outcome than just his own future, adding: 'If we can hang on up here, it will be a huge barrier to the story that every journalist has written, that Keir Starmer is moving gracefully and inevitably towards Downing Street.
'If we can hang on here then everyone will write, well, if Starmer can't win in the West Midlands he is less likely to win nationally.'
On the face of it, Mr Street is an unlikely saviour for the PM. In the 2022 Tory leadership contest he backed Liz Truss, though he acknowledges with hindsight it is 'self-evident she did not have all the requirements to be PM'.
But he still stands by some of her ideas, saying: 'The fact we had to get the growth rate of the country up and that we needed a plan for some of the new sectors that will produce the jobs of the future – that was absolutely right.'
Mr Street's relationship with the PM hit a nadir last autumn when Mr Sunak brushed aside his protests and announced the HS2 rail scheme – once planned to run to Manchester and Leeds – would instead terminate at Birmingham.
Those who saw the West Midlands mayor at the time believe he was on the verge of quitting.
He will not say how close he came, but admits he was 'bloody cross' with the PM.
More recently, he needled No 10 by declaring he would have handed back the £5million donated to the party by businessman Frank Hester after it emerged he had made racist comments about Labour MP Diane Abbott.
His allies insist it is this independent streak which
