Political surprise in Stoke

Nick Watson Producer Politics Show West Midlands

In the realms of the unlikely it is right up there with the chance of a Brit winning Wimbledon, an England clean sweep in the Ashes or a Bank Holiday heat wave but something implausible has happened in Stoke-on-Trent.

Councillor Ross Irving - newly elected leader of Stoke City Council

For the first time since anybody can remember Stoke City Council has a Conservative leader.

This is so surprising it is probably the political equivalent of finding a hen's tooth wrapped in a four-leafed clover beneath a pile of rocking horse manure.

This is no exaggeration as Stoke used to be the sort of place where Labour votes were weighed by the kilo rather than counted.

It is a place where you would be more likely bump into Lord Lucan than a Conservative supporter in the local pub.

Mr Impossible

Step forward then Mr Impossible himself, Councillor Ross Irving - the newly elected Conservative leader of Stoke City Council.

A man, who by all rights, should not exist.

The people of Stoke-on-Trent deserve better than they have had in the past Cllr Ross Irving, Leader of Stoke City Council

"I will build on the achievements of the previous administration and work to build unity among the councillors," he boldly claimed upon taking his new office.

"The people of Stoke-on-Trent deserve better than they have had in the past."

Absolutely nobody would argue with the last part.

Dubious honour

It has not been easy getting there though for Cllr Irving and he mainly owes his new status to a breakdown in politics in Stoke rather than a mass conversion of the local population to the Conservative cause.

The Conservatives are not the biggest group on the council or even the second biggest.

The people of Stoke-on-Trent deserve a city which is well governed, with high quality public services, successful economic regeneration, and improved quality of life John Healey MP, Local government minister

In fact they boast the dubious honour of being the joint third largest party - their nine councillors putting them on level pegging with the extremists of the BNP.

Cllr Irving has been elected leader because of the collapse of the city's Labour Party - which at the time of writing had 13 councillors, down from 60 in the days when it held every seat on the council.

Corruption charges

His support comes from the small Conservative group plus an alliance of supporters from the city's now myriad of independent groupings.

They are united by very little except their desire to keep the BNP as far away from the levers of power as possible.

Town Hall - a period of turbulence preceded the current election

Cllr Irving enters the top job after a period of turbulence.

This saw the people of Stoke vote to remove their directly elected Mayor shortly before he (Mark Meredith), the former leader of the Conservative group Roger Ibbs, and a leading city business figure (Mo Chaudry) were arrested on corruption charges.

No charges have been brought as yet.

This followed on from the report of the Stoke-on-Trent Governance Commission in May 2008 which pulled no punches in its criticism of local government in the city.

It described the local political system as "damaged" with a form of government which "short-changed" people there.

Better governance

Central government has now intervened directly ruling that elections will be postponed until 2011 when there will be an "all-out" vote.

By this time there will have been no local government elections in Stoke for three years.

Local government minister John Healey

Local government minister John Healey said the changes would help to bring about better governance in Stoke-on-Trent.

"The people of Stoke-on-Trent deserve a city which is well governed, with high quality public services, successful economic regeneration, and improved quality of life for all," he said.

Noble sentiments

In accepting his new role as leader Cllr Irving echoed these noble sentiments.

"I pledge to work together with the other councillors for the good of all the people in Stoke-on-Trent," he said.

Cllr Irving has pledged to work for the good of the people of Stoke

But the new coalition he has cobbled together has some tough challenges ahead.

Labour has declined not to take part and the BNP has not even been asked.

All that remains now is to turn the fine words into action something which all the people of Stoke - no matter what their political allegiance - would support.

The Politics Show for the West Midlands, with Jon Sopel and Sarah Falkland, Sunday at 12:00 on BBC One

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