Ben Bradley says serving as the first East Midlands Mayor would "probably" be his only job if he was elected to the role. The Mansfield MP and Nottinghamshire County Council Leader has become the first to publicly say that he wants to be the Conservative Party's candidate for the new job.
The party is due to have eventually selected its candidate by the summer, with the first East Midlands Mayor election then due next May. Upon becoming the Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, many questioned how Councillor Bradley could serve in that role alongside his job as Mansfield MP.
But having now declared his intention to run for a third role, Councillor Bradley said it would be "really nice" to just have one job. He said: "Legally, you can't be the Mayor of the Combined Authority and a member of a constituent council on the same authority.
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"I would automatically be removed from the county council. That solves some of the busyness. There's a big part of me that would like to just have one job, that would be really nice. I think if I'm selected properly, I will properly think about it.
"From a family perspective, the likelihood is that if I won in the mayoral election, I probably wouldn't stand for Parliament again. I've done many jobs for quite a long time and it's very busy and I like my children. But I'd want to think about that."
A deal was first signed last year to hand £1.14 billion to Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire over the next 30 years. The money will be spent by a new East Midlands Combined Authority covering both counties, headed up by the directly-elected mayor.
The authority is due to be officially up and running next May and with the mayoral election also due that month, Councillor Bradley says the timing is "helpful." The next general election isn't expected until next autumn so if Councillor Bradley did become East Midlands Mayor, he would have some time to decide whether he could do it alongside his role as MP or not.
Councillor Bradley has already been re-selected as the Conservative Party candidate in Mansfield so if he decided not to stand again for Parliament, the local association would have to choose somebody else. In an article for The Telegraph announcing his mayoral candidacy, Councillor Bradley also called on the Government to ensure the legislative process for devolution is completed in time for next May.
If not, he says it would be "really damaging" for the East Midlands, adding: "We're already billions of pounds behind other areas that have had this for nearly a decade, we don't want to lose another year." In terms of his number of jobs, Councillor Bradley didn't completely rule out still serving as MP if he were re-elected at the general election and chosen as East Midlands Mayor.
He said: "I don't do any of these jobs on my own. I have a cabinet of people at County Hall, I have a team in the parliamentary office who work really hard. I will have a team of people helping me to run this campaign and to manage it.
"It's about getting the right people to help rather than just trying to cram a load more stuff into my diary. I've put a lot of political capital into [the new combined authority] being a good thing.
"I've spent a lot of time and energy on it, if I were elected to deliver it... I would like to give it that focus. Exactly what that looks like and what that means in practical terms, I'll cross that bridge if I'm selected as the official candidate."
Labour say they will have a candidate picked by August, with those running for the party including Chair of the Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust Claire Ward, former Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping, former BBC East Midlands Political Editor John Hess and Derbyshire politician Suqie Banwait.
The Liberal Democrats say they will put a candidate up for the mayoral role, whilst the Green Party is still considering whether to do so or not. Conservative MPs to have already backed Councillor Bradley to be the party's mayoral candidate include Brendan Clarke-Smith and Lee Anderson.
