Chamber POTY: Sir Albert Bore, nominated by Martin Mullaney
I would vote for Sir Albert Bore, solely on the basis that he has led the Labour Party in Birmingham back to power, albeit on the back of an unpopular Conservative-Liberal Democrat government. Whether he is still leader of the Labour group after next May will be interesting.
Being Leader of the Birmingham Labour Party is no easy task, since it a broad political church ranging from the far left to the centralist Blairites. It also contains inner city councillors with no political views, whose sole aim is to pander to Braderi votes. The far left grouping is not happy with Albert, since they campaigned on a ‘no cuts’ agenda in 2011 and 2012, only to see Albert introduce the same cuts they campaigned against.
The Chamber POTYs are the first Person of the Year Awards run by The Chamberlain News. To see who else has been nominated, click here
The inner city group are not happy with Albert, since he has kept most of them away from positions of responsibility – the Cabinet does after all contain only one non-white person.
There is also a sizeable group of disgruntled senior Labour councillors who had their noses pushed out of joint when Labour re-gained power in May 2012. This group of long-standing councillors had supported Albert through thick and thin during their eight years in opposition. Once back in power, Albert pushed them back onto the back benches and instead selected fresh-faced councillors for his Cabinet.
The sound of knives being sharpened in preparation for the Labour group’s annual selection of their leader in May 2013, is already deafening.
