In the second of his series of face-to-face interviews with the candidates for West Midlands Mayor, Adam Smith meets Labour candidate Sion Simon MEP.

SION Simon MEP has wanted to be a mayor for a long time.

He gave up his safe Erdington Labour seat in 2010 so he could run for the Mayor of Birmingham.

However, the people of Birmingham voted against having a mayor, so he became a member of the European Parliament.

Now seven years later he is the Labour candidate for the brand new position of West Midlands Mayor.

He launched his official campaign last week and is preparing to battle his main opponent Conservative Andy Street all the way to polling day in May.

The job will involve leading the West Midlands Combined Authority and improving the region’s transport, skills, housing and job creation.

But why have a mayor?

Mr Simon said: “I’ve been campaigning for regional devolution for seven years because I passionately believe we need to take control back from Westminster.

“It was when I was an MP in the West Midlands I realised the only way we could get really anything done is if we had our own powers.”

He added: “This is a region that needs to be interconnected, it needs decisions made for the entire region but just on a council to council basis.

“This is the region of cutting edge technology, of Shakespeare, of George Elliot, Britain’s finest novelist, and of a brilliant Bangladeshi music, this is a place of extraordinary creativity, and unlike anywhere else in the country.

“However, it used to lead the way in wages and skilled jobs but in the last 30 years it has stagnated.”

He added: “It now is the zero contracts capital of England, wages are lower than anywhere else too. The Tories say they have created jobs but youth unemployment is 15 per cent if not more, and in the Black Country all these figures are worse than elsewhere in the region.”

And the 48-year-old is determined the Black Country will not become the poor man of the region.

He said: “Even if they are generating high value jobs in Warwickshire and Solihull, they are not feeding down to the Black Country.

“Because of Jaguar and Land Rover, HS2 and other investment there will be tens of thousands of jobs created in the east of the region, we need to ensure people in the Black Country can have a stake in them.

“But in the Black Country there is more land, we have the opportunity to build new factories and more houses on brownfield sites.

“The Black Country needs to be connected. The Black Country needs to improve its transport links within itself and to the outside world.

He added: “It is nearly impossible to get from the north of the Black Country to the south of it without either being delayed through congestion or on public transport.

“Sometimes you will have to go in and out of Birmingham to get from one part of the Black Country to the other, which is wrong.”

The election for the mayoralty is on Thursday, May 4 and turnout could be as low as 20 per cent.

Mr Sion said: “Whoever wins the first election will have to make their mark. They will have three years in power to show what this position can do for ordinary people before the second election. I think I can do that.”

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