Conservative leader David Cameron failed to silence his critics at last week’s LGA Conference, where delegates dismissed his speech as ‘lacking in substance’, writes Jamie Hailstone.
Delegates had to wait almost 20 minutes for the Tory leader to give his address, although one chief executive later claimed that the delay was to allow Mr Cameron more time to give media interviews outside the conference.
Mr Cameron used his speech to reiterate his party’s commitment to abolishing regional assemblies and the Standards Board.
The Tory leader also called for directly elected mayors in ‘our major cities’.
‘I believe elected mayors will help change public perceptions of councils,’ he told delegates, ‘making power visible, giving it a name and a face, and so making accountability obvious and real.’
Mr Cameron also trailed a report by the Conservatives’ social justice policy group, which was spearheaded by Iain Duncan Smith and was published this week.
‘I thought it was typical Cameron,’ said LGA Labour group leader, Sir Jeremy Beecham. ‘Not much substance. It was pretty unspecific to local government. It was more about trailing this week’s report from Iain Duncan Smith.’
Sir Jeremy said he would be writing to the new shadow secretary of state, Eric Pickles, to ask if Mr Cameron would impose directly elected mayors in cities like Liverpool and Birmingham.
There were more headaches for Mr Cameron last week with the ongoing search for a Tory candidate to stand for London mayor.
Nick Boles announced he was withdrawing from the race to be his party’s candidate after he was diagnosed with the early stages of Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Former CBI director general Sir Digby Jones denied reports he had been approached by the Tories to stand as a candidate against Ken Livingstone.
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