Mayor says Labour must rebuild inner city trust

Richard Parker said Labour needed to "rebuild trust with inner city communities"

The mayor of the West Midlands has called for Labour to "rebuild trust with inner city communities" and help young people find better jobs.

Richard Parker said it was "important" that those within politics behaved and campaigned responsibly.

He made the comments ahead of a meeting of England's regional mayors with new Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Mr Parker also said there was a pot of about £200m which could not be spent because of rules set up by the former Conservative government.

He said rules had been drawn "far too tightly" over the spending of funds at the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and he would "like the freedom" to use the funds to create more than 3,000 affordable homes over the next 18 months.

“So if we get that agreed today, I’d be very very happy," he said.

The mayor said he had got approval for three investment zones across the region which would “deliver around five and a half billion pounds of investment and create 31,000 jobs."

Regional mayors met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Downing Street on Tuesday

Mr Parker was speaking to Radio 4's Today programme ahead of a meeting at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday morning, which the government said would "discuss a major programme of devolution."

Mr Parker's call to rebuild trust with inner city communities follows Labour's loss of its long held Perry Barr seat to an independent candidate, alongside tighter majorities in Yardley and Ladywood in Birmingham.

Shabana Mahmood saw her majority slashed from 32,000 to 3,421 last week, whilst Jess Phillips saw her lead fall from 13,141 to 693.

The mayor said he thought his plans to build more social housing, grow the economy and invest in "the skills that we need to create better jobs and better paid jobs," would be a "really effective and important contribution."

He said he was also particularly keen to look at ways they could address issues around youth unemployment and that he wanted to give "young people access to the skills they need to get better paid jobs."

“We’ve got twice as many young people out of work in the West Midlands than there’s a case nationally,” he explained.

"If we make progress on those matters, improve people’s lives, grow our economy – I think Labour nationally and Labour mayors will demonstrate that we’re working together and we’re delivering success for people in our region."