Mike Whitby is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 politician and current leader of Birmingham City Council

Birmingham City Council

The Birmingham City Council is the body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local authority in the United Kingdom with, following a reorganisation of boundaries in June 2004, 120 Birmingham...

, a post he has held since June 2004. He is one of three Conservative councillors representing the Harborne

Harborne

Harborne is an area three miles southwest from Birmingham city centre, England. It is a Birmingham City Council ward in the formal district and in the parliamentary constituency of Birmingham Edgbaston.- Geography :...

 ward in the west of the city. He was formerly a Councillor on Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.

Background

Mike Whitby was educated in Smethwick

Smethwick

Smethwick is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands of England. It is situated on the edge of the city of Birmingham, within the historic boundaries of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire....

 at James Watt Technical Grammar School, and also at Michael's Hoven College in the then West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

. He then undertook a period of voluntary work in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, helping to rebuild communities destroyed during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

He has worked in the cultural sector in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, and also lectured in Business and Management Studies. He is currently Chairman and Managing Director of Skeldings, a small Smethwick engineering company, which was the winner of the Birmingham Post

Birmingham Post

The Birmingham Post newspaper was originally published under the name Daily Post in Birmingham, England, in 1857 by John Frederick Feeney. It was the largest selling broadsheet in the West Midlands, though it faced little if any competition in this category. It changed to tabloid size in 2008...

 Business Award in June 2001.

Whitby serves, and has served, as both a Director and as Chairman of various large organisations, including the Engineering Employers Federation, the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses

Federation of Small Businesses

The Federation of Small Businesses was formed in 1974 and is the UK's leading business organisation representing small and medium sized businesses.- About the FSB :...

, the National Exhibition Centre

National Exhibition Centre

The National Exhibition Centre is an exhibition centre in Birmingham, England. It is near junction 6 of the M42 motorway, and is adjacent to Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International railway station. It has 20 interconnected halls, set in grounds of 628 acres making it the...

, Marketing Birmingham and Advantage West Midlands

Advantage West Midlands

-Advantage West Midlands – Regional Development Agency:Advantage West Midlands was established in 1999 as one of nine Regional Development Agencies in England. RDAs were created by the UK Government to drive sustainable economic development and social and physical regeneration through a...

. He is currently Chairman of Aston Science Park

Aston Science Park

Aston Science Park is a science park located in Birmingham City Centre, United Kingdom. It is located alongside the A4540 road, on a site adjacent to Aston University and the Eastside area...

 and the City Region of Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country. He is a member of the Institute of Directors

Institute of Directors

The Institute of Directors is a UK-based organisation, established in 1903 and incorporated by royal charter in 1906 to support, represent and set standards for company directors...

.

History in politics

Whitby joined the Conservative Party in 1979. He first stood as a candidate in the Midlands West European by-election in 1987, again for Midlands West in the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

 Elections in 1989, and then as a Westminster Parliamentary candidate for Delyn

Delyn

Delyn can refer to:*Delyn , a former district of Wales*Delyn , a constituency based on the district*Delyn , a constituency based on the district...

 in 1992, though on both occasions he was unsuccessful he did significantly improve the Conservative vote. He finally achieved elected office in 1997, on winning the Harborne ward of Birmingham

Government of Birmingham

Birminghamshown within West MidlandsThis page is about the Government of Birmingham, England.-Civic history:Most of Birmingham was historically a part of Warwickshire, though the modern city also includes villages and towns historically in Staffordshire or Worcestershire.Until the 1760s, Birmingham...

 in a by-election. He has retained the seat since, most recently in the 2006 local election. He became Leader of the Conservative Group on Birmingham City Council in 2003, and Leader of the Council in 2004.

As leader of Birmingham City Council

Following the city-wide elections in 2004 Whitby has led the Council in what he terms a progressive partnership with the Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

.

A guiding principle for the progressive partnership under Whitby has been its consistent delivery of low levels of taxation, whilst at the same time improving frontline services. This is evidenced by four consecutive years of below-inflation Council Tax

Council tax

Council Tax is the system of local taxation used in England, Scotland and Wales to part fund the services provided by local government in each country. It was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as a successor to the unpopular Community Charge...

 increases of 1.9%, making Birmingham's council tax the lowest average across four years for any Metropolitan Council in the UK, whilst the Audit Commission's analysis of the Council has moved from "weak" in 2004 to "improving well" in 2008.

Now in its fifth year, Whitby's administration continues to be described as "out of control", as Birmingham City Council continues its "journey towards excellence". Headline achievements include: housing and social services, condemned as failing by the Government in 2004, are now described as good. The largest public sector business transformation programme in the UK, which is predicted to save £1 billion, is well underway. A pay and grading review for 40,000 staff has been completed, producing a fairer salary system – something the previous Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 couldn’t or wouldn’t do. The £600 million refurbishment of New Street Station has been approved, and Birmingham will have a new library by 2013.

During his time as Leader Whitby has been responsible for the slogan "Global City, Local Heart", a brand which commonly appears on Council documents and marketing material. It has now been described as a simple phrase which captures the fact that as a city of over a million people Birmingham can be one of the worlds' great cities, but an integral part of what makes it great is the diverse individuals which make up the population.

Whitby has been closely linked with the development of the Birmingham Big City Plan. In 2007, a report was commissioned by Councillor Whitby, the result was The Birmingham City Centre Masterplan: The Visioning Study by Professor Michael Parkinson. The largest masterplanning exercise of its kind, the Big City Plan is designed to shape and revitalise Birmingham's city centre over the next twenty years, putting the city's sustainability, culture, creativity, technology and enterprise at the heart of its future plans, activities and development.

Controversy

At times, Whitby has attracted headlines as a result of comments he has made in public. In 2006, he made a written apology to newly-elected Respect Councillor Salma Yaqoob

Salma Yaqoob

Salma Yaqoob is the leader, and former vice-chair, of the Respect Party and a former Birmingham City Councillor. She is also the head of the Birmingham Stop the War Coalition and a spokesperson for Birmingham Central Mosque....

 following remarks he made that she would be "better off in Oldham or Burnley". Yaqoob had criticised the Council leadership for the absence of Black or Asian Councillors in the Council Cabinet or in senior positions such as Chairs of Scrutiny Committees.

In February 2007, Whitby withdrew remarks which attracted the attention of mental health charity Mind. In a council debate, he accused Labour Councillors of suffering from schizophrenia

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...

. In the same debate, a Cabinet colleague also described the Labour Councillors of suffering senile dementia

Dementia

Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...

. Following media attention Whitby issued a partial apology.

On becoming leader of Birmingham City Council in 2004, one of councillor Whitby's first acts was to discontinue plans for a new central library in the Eastside

Eastside, Birmingham

Eastside is a district of Birmingham City Centre, England currently undergoing a major redevelopment project. The overall cost when completed is expected to be £6–8 billion over a period of ten years which will result in the creation of 12,000 jobs. 8,000 jobs are expected to be created during the...

 regeneration area of the city. Despite planning for the project being well advanced and there being a widely admired design by Richard Rogers

Richard Rogers

Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside CH Kt FRIBA FCSD is a British architect noted for his modernist and functionalist designs....

, the newly elected Conservative-Liberal partnership believed the proposed building was in the wrong place and would cost too much. Since then, there have been suggestions (later retracted and then repeated) that the city would hold an international competition for a new library on a different site next to Centenary Square

Centenary Square

Centenary Square is a public square on Broad Street in central Birmingham, England, named in 1989 in celebration of the centenary of Birmingham achieving city status in 1889....

. Suggestions have since been raised that the new site is too small and that the costs have actually risen since the Rogers scheme was rejected. Objections have also been raised by some conservationists to the proposed demolition of the existing Central Library, designed by local architect John Madin

John Madin

John Hardcastle Dalton Madin is an English architect. He was born in Moseley, Birmingham on 23 March 1924. His company, known as John H D Madin & Partners from 1962 and the John Madin Design Group from 1968, were active in Birmingham for over 30 years. Some of the buildings his company designed...

.

Relationship with Conservative Party leadership

Whitby has clashed with the leadership of the Conservative Party and the Leader David Cameron

David Cameron

David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....

 on more than one occasion. In December 2007, he criticised the study of a Tory think tank headed by former Conservative Party Leader Iain Duncan Smith

Iain Duncan Smith

George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...

to be "error-ridden, inaccurate, out of date and misleading". The report claimed the Council needed to tackle crushing poverty and unemployment before it could hail Birmingham as a great city.

In the same month, Whitby also criticised David Cameron in relation to the issue of directly elected mayors to run major cities in England. Whitby has been opposed to having a directly elected mayor in Birmingham. He compared the Tory leader's support for elected mayors to other ideas Cameron had put forward such as "taxing plasma screen televisions and taxing cars in car parks". Whitby commented that "he soon rescinded" those.

At the time of those comments Whitby described the debate around elected mayors as "puerile" and disputed the idea that support for the idea would form part of the forthcoming Conservative Party manifesto. There was a high profile Birmingham Mail campaign in favour of a referendum for an elected Mayor for Birmingham but the campaign failed to attract anywhere near the level of public interest needed.

However, after the U.K General Election of 2010 which resulted in a Conservative-led administration being in government in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, a bill is going through parliament which facilitates the creation of an elected Mayor for Birmingham - should the people vote for it in a referendum. Whitby, whose opposition to the creation of such a post is well documented, is rumoured to be in the running for the Conservative nomination as Mayoral candidate in 2013. Given his vocal opposition to the creation of the post in the past, Whitby will have a tough task in convincing both his party and the people of Birmingham that he is the right man for this new and crucial role.