charles wilson

A message to the North East, a region that means so very much to me, but it matters to each of you with these new almighty mayors too. This is Kim McGuinness. The Labour Mayor who sat in a room with the Prime Minister and a table full of elected mayors last week and complained that your councils were getting in her way. Her words: "They could stop me from doing it. And I don't think that's right, either on this or other things." This was never just about a tourist tax. It's about who gets to decide what happens in your town. I'm a County Durham lad. My grandad, and generations of my family before him, went down the pits here. My mam and dad met working in the factories of Stanley. I was brought up to believe that power belongs as close as possible to the people it affects. In your street. In your village. With the councillors you can stop in Tesco and give a piece of your mind. So let me walk you through what's happened. In 2024, Kim McGuinness stood for mayor promising a £1 a night charge on hotel rooms. A quid. A "small charge," she called it. Now she wants a levy of up to 5% on every booking. On a £150 hotel room, that's £7.50 a night. Every hotel, B&B, guest house and holiday let in the region. That isn't the small charge she put in her manifesto. It's a massive escalation she never asked you about. Then something happened she didn't plan for. You voted. After she was elected, the people of Durham, Sunderland, Gateshead and South Tyneside put Reform in charge of their councils. Those are mandates every bit as real as hers, and more recent. In September, the four of us wrote to her asking her to rule this tax out. Northumberland's Conservatives oppose it too. That's five of the seven council leaders on her own cabinet, from two different parties. So what was the first thing she did? She didn't come back to us. She didn't try to change our minds. She went straight to the Prime Minister, in front of mayors from across the country, and asked for the power to overrule the councils you elected. Let's be clear about what that means. Devolution was supposed to take power out of Westminster and hand it back to communities. What Kim McGuinness wants is to take power out of Westminster and park it on one desk in Newcastle. Hers. That isn't devolution. It's centralisation with a regional postcode. It reduces your local councils to powerless chambers with a car park. She was asked to pick between the councils you elect to serve your community and more power for herself. She picked herself. And she told the PM it wasn't just about this. "Other things," she said. So ask yourself what comes next. If your council can't stop her taxing visitors, can it stop a thousand homes going up on the edge of your village? A solar farm across good farmland? Turbines on your skyline? She wants the answer to be no. Follow the money too. In that same meeting, which project did she talk up? Newcastle. She didn't name a single Durham town. Durham's guest houses collect it. Tyneside spends it. Her reply to me in the Chronicle was 200 words on why her tax is wonderful. There wasn't a single word denying she'd asked the Prime Minister to overrule the leaders you elected. Not one. I don't think that's right. I don't think any of you voted for that. And I'm not going to sit quietly whilst it happens either.