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Fresh from toppling the Conservatives in Quinton after a five-year break from the city council, John Clancy wasted no time in making his ambitious intentions clear.

Four days after the polls closed and minutes after swearing in as a new Labour councillor, he was hitting the telephone lines in an attempt to persuade colleagues to back his challenge to Sir Albert Bore, who Clancy is portraying as yesterdays man and past it.

Paradoxically, his challenge coincided with Labours best election performance in Birmingham for years the party, under Sir Alberts leadership, picked up 14 seats and now has 55 out of the 120 city councillors, six short of an overall majority.

But this is not good enough, according to Coun Clancy, who says a lack of ambition prevented Labour from taking control of the council this year.

Describing Sir Alberts hold on power as impotent, Coun Clancy accused him of complacency and insisted that with a greater focus on direct campaigning, Labour would have been able to win power outright from Birminghams Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition at the 2011 polls.

Some of those on the receiving end of his pitch were astonished at the brazen approach of a man prepared to gamble on getting the top job so soon.

But Clancys campaign has been six years in the making. In 2005, when he was last on the council, he teamed up with fellow Labour councillor Mike Olley in a joint bid to topple Sir Albert. Coun Olley put himself forward for group leader, Coun Clancy for deputy. Both were soundly beaten and stood down from the council soon afterwards.

Returning for a second crack, this time gunning for Sir Albert directly, Coun Clancy said: This is something I was always going to do. Labour should have been in power in Birmingham this week and the fact that we are not says a lot about the group leadership.

Coun Clancy, aged 49, a former teacher and now a lecturer at Birmingham University Business School, accused Sir Albert of being a part-time leader who was more interested in his job as chairman of the Birmingham University Hospital NHS Trust than in running the council group.

He promised to fight for the interests of small businesses if he ever becomes council leader and to adopt more imaginative ways of bringing investment to Birmingham, in particular by persuading trustees of the 10 billion West Midlands Local Government Pension Fund to buy Brummie Bonds.

Insisting that he would invoke the spirit of Joseph Chamberlain, Coun Clancy said Birmingham had to aim to return as a real force in municipal politics.

Coun Clancy (Lab Quinton) added: There should have been an expectation that we could win control of the council at the 2011 elections. But certain seats were regarded as unwinnable even though, with a bit of hard work on the ground, they could have been won.

“We could easily have taken four more Tory seats and three more from the Liberal Democrats, putting Labour into power. A lot of people have come on to the Labour group, some former councillors who have returned, who like me are damn good campaigners.

“Theres a sense that we need to make a fresh start under a new leader.

Coun Clancy hit out at what he called a spread sheet politics approach by Sir Albert and his close supporters, apparently writing off many of Birminghams wards as difficult to win and therefore not worthy of a serious campaigning.

He accused Sir Albert of making a fundamental mistake by assuming that Labour will cruise to victory in 2012 by taking control of the council.

Although that is likely to happen, it seems certain that Tory council leader Mike Whitby will by then have been installed as shadow mayor, leaving Labour with a majority of council seats but with no power.

The Labour group was consumed by a diet of endless meetings in the Council House and rarely got out among ordinary Brummies, he said.

Insurance firms are milking the motorist by charging Birmingham drivers extortionate premiums just because of their postcode, a city MP has warned.

Drivers could be charged four times as much just because they live in the wrong neighbourhood, said Roger Godsiff (Lab Hall Green).

And he urged the Government to stop insurers taking advantage of their captive audience.

Mr Godsiff said it was right that motorists were legally obliged to take out insurance but this left them vulnerable to being ripped off.

The MP delivered the blunt verdict as he led a House of Commons debate on the insurance industry.

He highlighted the case of one Sparkhill resident who discovered he was being charged four times as much as somebody with a different postcode.

Mr Godsiff said: He has been driving since 1987 and has 10 years no claims bonus . . . his postcode is B11 and he was quoted 1,200 a year for his motor insurance.

He then gave a different address, of a relative, in an adjoining postcode and supplying exactly the same details he was quoted 276.

The MP highlighted another constituent who took out fully comprehensive insurance and was unable to find a quote better than 600.

He then got quotes for exactly the same driving history but with a Solihull or Warwick and Leamington address and his quotes were less than 300.

So he was being asked to pay double because of where he lived and not because of his personal circumstances.

Mr Godsiff said: They should be developing insurance policies which reward careful drivers with a proven record of not claiming and which takes into account personal driving history and scrap this unfair and discriminatory policy of penalising everybody in certain postcodes.

Transport Minister Norman Baker told him that the Government would examine the issues he had raised.

He added: I would have thought there is an opportunity for an insurance company to be offering more reasonable premia in B11 in order to undercut those who are applying a crude postcode basis.

But obviously thats a matter for the industry to take forward itself.

Solihull Liberal Democrat MP Lorely Burt has claimed that voters punished her party at the polls because they thought they were led by the nose by Conservatives.Ms Burt, the chair of the Lib Dem Parliamentary Party, said there had been disagreements and arguments behind the scenes since the coalition was formed last May. But instead of boasting about their success in standing up to the Tories, the Liberal Democrats had kept quiet – and were punished by voters as a result, she said.

Ms Burt said: Weve been portrayed as letting the Conservatives lead us by the nose, but the truth is it would have been much worse if we hadnt been in coalition government.

She was speaking after the party lost around 500 seats in council elections, as voters apparently blamed Nick Cleggs party for spending cuts and unpopular policies such as tuition fees.

Meanwhile, David Camerons Conservatives were on course to gain a small number of seats.

One graphic example was in Ms Burts own constituency of Solihull, where the Lib Dems lost four seats and Labour lost two, while Conservatives gained six.

It meant Lib Dems lost control of the council, which they had run as the largest partner in a coalition with Labour, and the Tories took control.

Ms Burt said: We were expecting a kicking but this was more than we expected.

The way we have presented ourselves, as a united coalition government, has worked well for the Conservatives but not for us.

People dont know about the discussions and, frankly, arguments that have gone on behind the scenes.

Weve been portrayed as letting the Conservatives lead us by the nose but the truth is it would have been much worse if we hadnt been in coalition government.

Liberal Democrats had been blamed for the Governments decision to raise the maximum cap on student tuition fees to 9,000 a year she said, adding: But it would have been a free-for-all on tuition fees without us.

“Youd be seeing fees of up to 40,000 like they have in America.

The party should be more willing to tell voters that it disagreed with the Conservatives, she said.

As MPs I dont think we appreciate the difference between the reality and what people are seeing. We know that we are fighting but people dont see that.

And she spoke bluntly about her anger at the way David Cameron and other senior Conservatives had campaigned for a No vote in the Alternative Vote referendum.

Obviously we are extremely p****d off at the way David Cameron has broken a gentlemans agreement that the two leaders wouldnt go into the campaign.

It makes you extremely angry. The tactics they have employed in the no campaign were terrible.

Ms Burt said she expected the coalition to continue into the next election despite Lib Dem anger.

Every Government goes through rocky patches.

But if your partner is winning council seats and wins the AV campaign and is all cock-a-hoop, then the partner that suffers badly is likely not to be best pleased.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – A candidate who won a nomination for Fort Wayne city council has perplexed his party, the Allen County election board, and voters who are trying to find him.

Tommy A. Schrader ran for one of the three Fort Wayne city council at-large seats as a Democrat in Tuesday’s primary. He’s one of the party’s three nominees headed for the general election in November.

But no one seems to know where he is, or who he is. His party has never seen or spoke to him before.

“We don’t know who this guy is. We don’t know where he’s at. Or what’s happened to him,” said Kevin Knuth, spokesman for the Allen County Democratic party.

NewsChannel 15 tried to track him down, Thursday, by calling the phone number listed on his declaration of candidacy. His number was disconnected.

Someone else is living in the home listed as his permanent address.

“He comes and goes,” said John Etzcorn, Schrader’s landlord. He told NewsChannel 15 the missing candidate isn’t missing at all. He said Schrader is on vacation in Green Bay, Wisconsin. “He got tired of living in Fort Wayne even though he’s running for election.”

Etzcorn added that he informed Schrader of the results earlier in the week. “He’s looking forward to coming back and running a strong campaign.”

Etzcorn said the disappearing act is part of Schrader’s winning strategy that garnered more than 2,000 votes from people who likely knew nothing about him.

“That’s his secret of campaiging. His stealth candidate. No one knows who he is.”

It might remain that way if Schrader doesn’t come back to town soon. The Democratic party is planning to challenge his residency in court on Monday if Schrader cannot prove he lives in Fort Wayne.

If the court finds Schrader can’t run for office, the party gets to decide who will. It’s already eyeing George Guido, who placed after Schrader in the primary.

Birmingham City Council is under growing pressure to stop targeting spending cuts on front-line social care and voluntary groups after being heavily criticised in two High Court decisions.

The local authoritys Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition is facing a 19 million hole in its budget this year following judicial reviews which have halted plans to reduce social services provision and grants to voluntary organisations.

Mr Justice Blake ruled in the High Court that a decision to axe a 1.4 million funding scheme for 13 third sector groups, including the Citizens Advice Bureau, was unlawful.

Neither the cabinet nor the full council paid due regard to their responsibilities to promote equality under the Disability Discrimination Act and failed to consult properly with people who would be hit by the cuts.

Last week, Mr Justice Walker came to the same conclusion when allowing a judicial review into a cabinet decision to save 17.5 million by restricting social services care to adults whose needs are critical the highest category of disability indicating an inability to perform the simplest tasks without help.

More than 11,000 people currently receiving help will be re-assessed and about 4,000 with substantial needs stand to lose council-funded care as a result. They will be directed to voluntary or private sector providers instead.

The financial implications from the latest court case could be serious. The council expects to save about 53 million by 2014 from limiting social services provision to adults with critical needs and may now have to find the money from elsewhere.

The cabinet is biding its time before deciding how to react to the latest setback.

The re-assessment programme has been halted and all adults with substantial needs will continue to receive care pending a full judgment to be handed down by Mr Justice Walker towards the end of May, but the council has indicated it may appeal.

A council spokeswoman said: Like all councils, Birmingham faces a huge financial challenge, with adults and communities having to make a share of the savings and we need to assess the impact of this decision.

It is also important to point out that this judgement is about the process we went through with regard to the Disability Discrimination Act, not the actual decision about where savings should be made.