A Bristolian is vying to become the next mayor - not of his home city, but of the West Midlands. Richard Parker, 60, is Labour's candidate in the region's mayoral race.
The role, which leads the West Midlands Combined Authority, is currently taken by popular Conservative and ex-John Lewis CEO Andy Street. However, at a time when the public's confidence in the party has plummeted, it's been suggested that other candidates could have a natural edge.
BirminghamLive sat down with Parker to discuss his ambitions for the area he now calls home - his family now live in Barnt Green, not officially in the West Midlands though he now has a flat in the city centre too. He recalled being born and raised on a Bristol estate, and his West Country burr is still strong.
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Raised as a Bristol City fan, they remain his team. Music is another of his interests outside of politics - famous Bristol band Massive Attack are considered "friends" while his teens and early 20s were on a diet of The Clash, The Jam, Talking Heads.
He was the son of a dock worker while his mum worked as a school secretary. His maternal granddad was seriously injured in the First World War and never worked after, with the family scraping a living selling faggots and doing anything they could to get by, he told Birmingham's politics editor Jayne Haynes.
Parker described an upbringing rooted in working-class values of hard work and integrity, with a 'love your neighbour' ethos. He recalled the arrival of a poor family of Asian origin in their street of otherwise white households, and how his mum and dad, not well off themselves, insisted they all ate with them every day for three weeks until they found their feet.
Leaving school at 16 with decent O-levels, he went straight to work, like nearly all of his schoolmates. In an office at the local port authority, his manager told young Richard not to waste his brains and told him should be at university. "I decided to go back to college and did my A-levels, and that changed my life really."
After graduating he got a finance job at Birmingham City Council, living in Bearwood and Balsall Heath, before getting a place with PWC, where he achieved his accountancy qualifications. But he never really wanted to be an accountant, he said.
"People from backgrounds like me will understand this but what I wanted more than being an accountant was the security of a professional qualification. I felt it would give me some control."
He said his biggest passion is to create opportunities and choices for children and families from disadvantaged backgrounds. He explained: "Unless you spend unfathomable amounts on public services and the welfare state, the only way we can really improve people's lives is by helping them get the best possible jobs. At the moment 25% of the [West Midlands] region's workforce has no or very low skills.
"That blights them to low pay and all the uncertainty and insecurity that comes with that, and they tend to live in the poorest communities. Breaking that cycle of inequality is what drives me."
People will go to the polls on Thursday, May 2 to elect the mayor for the region alongside councillors to local authorities in many areas, including Bristol. There will be no mayor to elect in Bristol this time, after residents voted to scrap the mayor in favour of a committee-led system.
