Birmingham Council leader Mike Whitby in dig at David Cameron

Dec 27 2007 By Neil Elkes, Local Government Correspondent, Birmingham Mail

COUNCIL chief Mike Whitby today poked fun at his own Tory leader David Cameron for his involvement in a 'puerile debate' over an elected mayor for Birmingham.

The leader of Birmingham City Council was in combative mood as he rubbished the campaign for a referendum on elected mayors as 'contrived'.

He dismissed Mr Cameron's support, suggesting the national Tory leader had also backed other dead-end policies such as green taxes on plasma televisions and car park spaces.

Referring directly to Mr Cameron's call for a referendum on the issue, Coun Whitby (Con, Harborne) said: "That is David Cameron's personal view and he is quite entitled to that.

"He is leader of the party, but whether or not it becomes a manifesto issue I don't know.

"But I would be saying to David Cameron there are better ways of improving local government than going down the road of the elected mayor.

"If anything, it's a distraction to the real issues of local government.

"I don't think you need an elected mayor. An elected mayor means so much to different people, there are about 40 different options and actually I think the debate so far has been rather puerile."

In fact, the Birmingham referendum campaign is offering just one option - an elected mayor with a Cabinet selected from the councillors. And the debate so far has attracted united calls from business leaders, community groups and from across the political spectrum in support of a referendum allowing the people of Birmingham to decide on the issue.

Coun Whitby broke his eight-month silence on the elected mayor issue in a wide-ranging interview with Birmingham Mail columnist Adrian Goldberg for a podcast on his website www.thestirrer.com

It comes as Mr Cameron, along with senior colleagues such as Michael Hestletine, is drawing up plans to impose elected mayors on the UK's major cities should he become Prime Minister.

The Tory contender for Number 10 Downing Street believes elected mayors, such as Ken Livingstone in London, offer stronger leadership and more accountability to the voter compared to the largely anonymous council leaders currently running the UK's big cities.

And in a visit to Birmingham earlier this year, Mr Cameron called on his Tory council to voluntarily hold a referendum on the issue to allow the electorate to decide on how they are governed.

But Coun Whitby today derided his political boss's comments, saying: "David Cameron personally believes, so he says, in an elected mayor, but the Conservative Party has not given a view."

He then went on to claim that Mr Cameron had set up a number of think-tank groups to dream up policies which are soon dropped.

He added: "David Cameron had a think-tank which came up with the idea of taxing plasma screen televisions and taxing cars in car parks. He soon rescinded that."

It is the second time in a month Whitby has found himself in conflict with Mr Cameron after a Tory think-tank headed by former leader Ian Duncan Smith found Birmingham to be suffering with 'crushing poverty' and unemployment.

Whitby called that study "error-ridden, inaccurate, out of date and misleading".

In his podcast, Mr Whitby reeled off a series of his successes for Birmingham including major conferences, sporting events, business investment such as the Longbridge plan announced yesterday and major city centre building projects.

But he blamed the Government and heavy bureaucracy for delays over the delivery of New Street.

To listen to Coun Whitby's full podcast, click onto www.birminghammail.net/news/columnists/thestirrer