Siôn Simon to step down as MP and minister

Birmingham Erdington MP Siôn Simon is to step down from parliament and as a minister to campaign to become the city's first elected mayor. The junior culture minister, who has been an MP for nine years, will give up his seat at the next election to lobby for the city to adopt the elected mayor system. He told the BBC: "The answer to Birmingham's problems simply don't lie in London. I'm certainly committed to putting myself forward and becoming the Labour candidate." Simon said was initially sceptical about the need for elected mayors, until he saw the difference it made to London. He said: "The current electoral system is aimed at running the country, and not specifically aimed at what's best for Birmingham. What we have is out-of-date 19th century municipal structures." In December, Simon was forced to apologise after it emerged he rented a second home from his sister, in contravention of Commons rules. He promised to repay a sum, thought to run to about £20,000, saying it had been an oversight. He also faced criticised for a spoof webcast mocking David Cameron 's video blog in 2006. He said at the time the stunt was to expose the Tory leader's "nakedly shallow attempt to appropriate 'yoof' culture". But many felt the tenor of the video was more embarrassing for Labour than the Tories. Simon's attempt to galvanise the case for a mayoralty in the most populous British city outside London is likely to pose a significant challenge. Attempts to launch a similar model in Birmingham has so far failed, despite a report by the Centre for Cities thinktank four years ago which suggested that a "Greater Birmingham authority" under a tax-raising mayor could successfully organise ambitious infrastructure projects. Under local government legislation, a council may choose to hold a referendum of its citizens asking them if they want an elected mayor. But a 2001 poll asking if the people of Birmingham wanted "super-mayors" did not show majority support. In 2008, a local campaign to petition the council for another referendum failed to raise enough interest. More than 36,000 city voters had to sign within a 12-month period to automatically trigger a binding referendum after Birmingham city council had refused to voluntarily hold one. The campaign, spearheaded by the local paper, the Birmingham Mail , managed to collect just a third of the signatures needed. The Labour government established the London mayoralty in 1999. Current mayor Boris Johnson oversees a region with a population of just over 7.5 million people.