In praise of Andy Street

Commentators like me often lament the lack of business experience among leading politicians – but also observe how few business leaders ever make successful transitions into the political arena. Archie Norman tried his hand as an opposition front-bencher, didn’t like it, and returned to the boardroom, latterly to lead the revival of Marks & Spencer; Digby Jones moved on from the CBI to serve uncomfortably as a trade minister under Gordon Brown. But there’s one obvious exception to the rule that politics and corporate life require totally different skill sets: Andy Street, who is campaigning for a third term as Tory mayor of the West Midlands, the UK’s second-most populous city-region after London.

We’re so used to seeing Street championing his territory and outplaying Westminster and local opponents that his previous 31-year career with the John Lewis Partnership has been largely forgotten. But his tenure there as managing director from 2007 until his resignation to fight the 2017 mayoral election is remembered as an era of golden and relatively stable growth for the employee-owned retailer, which has been rocky ever since.