Mayor of the West Midlands calls for more power from Rishi Sunak's government

The Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street is calling on Rishi Sunak's government to hand him new powers so that he can fire up the region's growth and prosperity.

He says despite initially favouring Liz Truss for the top job he's now "utterly behind Rishi Sunak".

His ambitious call for spending comes as Labour is keen to remind people of the millions "stripped away" from local councils since 2010 - which has had a big effect on services.

This is Andy Street's fourth prime minister in five years as Mayor of the West Midlands and say's he wants to bring big projects to the region like HS2 and a gigafactory in Coventry.

However, Labour say the big projects are welcomed but spending cuts at every level pose a major issue.

Labour Councillor Brigid Jones, Deputy Leader for Birmingham City Council said: "We have been decimated by their (Conservatives) policy decisions."

"The conservatives, since 2010, have systematically stripped out three quarters of a billion pounds of funding from Birmingham City Council's budget and it's the same for councils up and down the country.