LONDON — Conservative former mayor Andy Street will not be appointed to oversee Britain’s nationalized railways after a recruitment process that has now lasted more than eight months.
POLITICO reported in June that Street was seen as a leading candidate for the first chair of Great British Railways, which will oversee rail infrastructure and services as part of Labour’s reversal of the Conservative rail privatization three decades ago.
He was interviewed for the role but Labour ministers will not hand it to him, according to two people with knowledge of the decision, both of whom were granted anonymity to speak frankly. One suggested the decision was mutual.
Both of the people said a key reason was that Street still appeared to harbor a desire to return to frontline politics. One of the people, a government official, said he had been “unable to subdue his political ambitions.” Street was the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands for seven years until Labour narrowly defeated him in 2024.
Street declined to comment on the Great British Railways recruitment process, and told POLITICO that supposition about his political intentions was “speculation” and “conjecture.”
‘Political ambitions’
Recruitment began in January for the role of chair, which will pay £200,000 to £300,000 a year for 10 days of work a month. Great British Railways is due to be up and running in 2027, with passenger services transferred to public ownership by the end of that year as private rail operators’ contracts expire.
The Department for Transport declined to comment on whether a decision was imminent or the process of finding a chair had slowed. A government official said a “fair, open and merit-based process” was underway.
Street has history with Britain’s railways. He narrowly decided not to quit the Conservatives in 2023 when former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak scrapped a leg of the planned High Speed 2 rail line from Birmingham to Manchester.
Supporters describe him as a figure who reached across political lines and was respected for his nine-year stint as managing director of department store John Lewis.
The job of West Midlands mayor — who holds one of the largest single electoral mandates of any British politician — will come up for election again in 2028.
Street has continued to make appearances around the region, including visiting the scene of wildfires outside Birmingham over summer. He also has a busy schedule at the Conservative Party Conference this weekend in the same city, including with the center-right policy network Prosper which he co-founded with former Scottish Conservatives Leader Ruth Davidson.
Prominent Conservatives from the center-right flank have, however, been blocked from the party’s list of candidates for the next general election, expected by 2029. Party Leader Kemi Badenoch has insisted that future candidates must agree to abandoning net zero carbon policies and to withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights.
A person who has worked with Street said he was “building up a campaign and keeping key relationships alive,” and that any move by the party to block him from running on a Conservative ticket if he chose to would be “a ridiculous act of self-harm.”
Street said it would be wrong to draw any conclusions about his future ambitions in frontline politics. “This is pure political speculation with two and two making five,” he said. “It is true that I will be active at conference as co-chair of ProsperUK making the case for moderate Conservatism, and demonstrating the support our movement has.
“It is also true that I remain deeply committed to the West Midlands. It is my home and I will continue to dedicate time and energy to its future. But the idea that these two facts are part of a wider plan is just conjecture.”
Emilio Casalicchio contributed reporting.