His understated, unpretentious, unexciting style of politics works well in the context of local government. Could it be transposed to Westminster?
Nick Timothy is from this Birmingham seat, which could go blue if anyone can be bothered to vote.
He says that while Birmingham itself and Solihull are particularly buoyant, large parts of the region feel that they have missed out on growth.
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. Labour have now published the results of their selection process for next year's European elections (the full regional lineups are available on LabourList). It makes for interesting reading. As Tim Shipman of the Daily Mail has spotted, "Unite candidates or officials have the top spot in every region in Labour's MEP lists […]
It’s about leadership; it’s about making a success of Brexit, and it’s about ending that litany of Labour failure.