John Lewis MD applies to be Tory candidate for West Midlands
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Version 0 of 1. Andy Street, the managing director of John Lewis, has applied to become the Conservative party candidate for mayor of the West Midlands and will step down from the department store if he is successful. The announcement confirms widespread rumours about the future of Street, who has headed the department store for nine years and spent more than 30 years at its parent group, the John Lewis Partnership. Street, who is from the West Midlands and is chair of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP), the body tasked with driving economic growth in the region, has yet to be formally selected by the local Conservative party. Selection will be decided on 29 September by Tory members of the local devolved authority before the party conference on 2 October, where it has been reported that Street is to welcome the prime minister to Birmingham. John Lewis said: “Should Andy be successful in his application, he has agreed with the chairman that he should step down from his role and a further announcement will be made to confirm the succession plan for the future leadership of the John Lewis brand.” Resigning will be a big gamble for Street as the mayoral election next May and will be a tough fight in the Labour heartland. If selected as the Tory party candidate, he will be up against Labour Siôn Simon, MEP for the West Midlands and a former Birmingham MP. Frontrunners to replace Street at John Lewis are retail director Mark Lewis, a former managing director of eBay UK who joined to lead the group’s online business in 2013, and commercial director Paula Nickolds, who has worked at John Lewis since 1994. Street, who was educated at King Edward’s school in Birmingham, is an Oxford graduate, and was a member of the prime minister’s business advisory group. He is also vice chairman of Performances Birmingham, which is responsible for running the city’s symphony and town halls. Steve Hollis, deputy chair of GBSLEP, said Street had used his John Lewis experience to drive transformation in the region. “It has been a privilege to work with Andy and witness the Greater Birmingham Solihull economy move from being the laggard in the UK five years ago to now being the leader across many measures,” he said. Street’s political ambitions come after the former managing director of Waitrose, Mark Price, left the supermarket and became minister for trade and investment. |