Tantalising Tory leadership contest: Alden and Alden, Bird, Rudge and Lines
If Cllr Whitby was to be defeated, or perhaps decide to throw the towel in and leave the council, who would fill his shoes? There’s hardly a long list of contenders, and there will probably be even fewer in 15 months’ time.
The brutal truth is that after May 2014, with the Tory group likely to be down to about 22 members, a new leader will have to attract about a dozen votes to be certain of success. Ten or 11 of those votes will come from Sutton Coldfield.
Young Robert Alden, currently deputy Tory group leader, is the talked about man. One senior Tory councillor noted: “He’s putting in a serious amount of work and trying very hard. People have recognised this and respect him for it.
“But you have to say there’s sympathy for Mike Whitby. It can’t be easy to go from leading the council to leading a small opposition group, although it’s true that he hasn’t been very visible.”
A former Tory councillor added: “Bobby is one of the very few people that understands we have to broaden our appeal to the city’s non-white population. It’s a matter of great regret that we ran the council for eight years and couldn’t get a single black or Asian councillor elected.”
Bobby Alden has been visible. He’s busily transforming himself in an effort to become appealing to the more old fashioned Tories who have always been somewhat suspicious about his penchant for shaggy beard and long hair, beatnik-style clothing and unashamedly green agenda. There are even times when he appears to be rather to the left of most of the Labour group.
He married recently, always a good sign for potential Conservative leaders, and is now routinely seen at full council meetings in a shirt and tie, although his Downton Abbey-style tweed hacking jacket given an outing at this week’s gathering may have been slightly over the top, one feels.
There is at least one problem with Bobby’s leadership ambitions, though. He, too, has to defend a difficult ward next year in Erdington, formerly rock solid Labour territory where the Tories have managed to win all three seats since 2010.
