Could Andy Street be a future Tory leader?

Andy Street was a political outsider when he was chosen as the Conservative party’s candidate for mayor of the new West Midlands Combined Authority in 2016. He was 53 and had enjoyed a successful career in retail, latterly as managing director of John Lewis and Partners. This weekend, after seven years as mayor, he was narrowly defeated by Labour’s Richard Parker, the margin just 1,508 votes out of a total of 600,000.

Street has become a considerable figure in Conservative politics, seen as straightforward and practical, an effective champion for his region. Partly this has been a result of his status as an outsider, someone who is not in hock to the party machine. Indeed, this time he had campaigned virtually as an independent, eschewing any obvious Conservative branding and highlighting his own achievements as mayor.

When he conceded defeat on Saturday, he did not conceal his disappointment but was characteristically pragmatic.