West Midlands mayor says Labour must rebuild inner city community trust

Mr Parker was speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme ahead of a meeting at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday morning, which the government said would “discuss a major programme of devolution.”

Mr Parker’s call to rebuild trust with inner city communities follows Labour’s loss of its long held Perry Barr seat to an independent candidate, alongside tighter majorities in Yardley and Ladywood in Birmingham.

Shabana Mahmood saw her majority slashed from 32,000 to 3,421 last week, whilst Jess Phillips saw her lead fall from 13,141 to 693.

The mayor said he thought his plans to build more social housing, grow the economy and invest in “the skills that we need to create better jobs and better paid jobs,” would be a “really effective and important contribution.”

He said he was also particularly keen to look at ways they could address issues around youth unemployment and that he wanted to give “young people access to the skills they need to get better paid jobs.”

“We’ve got twice as many young people out of work in the West Midlands than there’s a case nationally,” he explained.

“If we make progress on those matters, improve people’s lives, grow our economy – I think Labour nationally and Labour mayors will demonstrate that we’re working together and we’re delivering success for people in our region.”