Conservative ex-mayor Andy Street out of the running for top railways job

London — Despite being a leading contender, former Conservative mayor Andy Street will not assume the chair position overseeing Britain’s nationalized railways, according to sources familiar with the matter. The recruitment process for the role of chair at Great British Railways, which will oversee rail infrastructure and services, has been ongoing for over eight months.

Labour ministers have decided not to appoint Street to the position, with one official suggesting the decision was mutual. The key reason cited by the sources was that Street still harbored a desire to return to active politics. Street, who served as the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands for seven years until Labour narrowly defeated him in 2024, has declined to comment on the recruitment process, dismissing speculation about his political ambitions as "conjecture."

The chair position, which will pay £200,000 to £300,000 annually for 10 days of work per month, is set to be filled by 2027 when passenger services are transferred to public ownership. Street, who narrowly avoided quitting the Conservatives in 2023 when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak scrapped part of the planned High Speed 2 rail line, has a history with Britain's railways.

He is known for his bipartisan approach and his nine-year tenure as managing director of department store John Lewis. The job of West Midlands mayor, which has one of the largest single electoral mandates in Britain, will be up for election again in 2028. Street, who has been active in the Conservative Party Conference and Prosper, a policy network he co-founded with former Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson, has also been blocked from running as a Conservative candidate in the next general election due to his stance on net zero carbon policies and withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights.