I should have held "sham" selection process instead, says Bill Longmore

5:31pm Monday 14th January 2013 in News By Tom Edwards

Police and crime commissioner Bill Longmore Police and crime commissioner Bill Longmore

THE newly elected head of West Mercia Police has suggested he should have held a ‘sham selection’ process before appointing his deputy.

Bill Longmore, the new police and crime commissioner, seemed to suggest that he regretted not duping the public into thinking his deputy had been chosen by a selection process.

It follows widespread criticism of Mr Longmore for appointing his former colleague Barrie Sheldon to the £50,000 a year role.

Although he denies the pair are friends, his former election campaign publicity officer did not have to undergo any selection procedure before being given the job.

During an interview with BBC Hereford and Worcester Mr Longmore said his only regret was not holding a rigged selection process before handing the job to Mr Sheldon.

Asked if he would have done anything differently since winning the election two months ago, he replied: “If I’d have thought about it I could have had a sham selection, if you like, put some people in on selection.”

At that point he is interrupted by an astonished-sounding reporter Nicola Goodwin, who asks “what faked it?”.

To which he replies he’d have invited “someone” to take part as a rival contender but declared Mr Sheldon the successful candidate.

“I could have appointed him and everybody would have been happy then,” he says.

It was then put to Mr Longmore that he “would have pretended to be democratic then”, to which he replied: “no, no, that’s the thing I wouldn’t do - I would (have been) honest that Barry’s got the qualities I would seek”, before saying no rules were broken.

Mr Longmore, who is on £75,000 a year, appointed Mr Sheldon as his deputy despite the watchdog-style Police and Crime Panel recommending it not go ahead.

The panel said there was no “open or transparent process” in the selection, that the salary was random and that the duo were old work colleagues in Staffordshire Police.

Worcestershire’s Labour group deputy leader Councillor Alan Amos said: “Many people were bitterly disappointed with the way he completely ignored the advice given to him when appointing his deputy.

“It was very unwise and unacceptable. This is a position which affects every single person in Worcester and the concern over the way he’s handled himself is unprecedented.”

Yesterday Mr Longmore was unavailable to comment, but his press team said the interview had come across the wrong way.

Mr Sheldon said: “What he (Mr Longmore) was trying to say is that if he’d carried out a proper interview process and still selected me - and there was a good chance he would - the public would still have said it was a sham. It was a no-win situation.”

To listen to the interview visit http://audioboo.fm/boos/1151635-police-and-crime-commissioner#t=3m15s.

Comments(19)

TDH123 says...
5:48pm Mon 14 Jan 13

If the interview came across the wrong way then Mr Longmore has nobody to blame except himself for again displaying poor judgement in public office.
Perhaps his press team would be better utilised detailing the historical relationship between Longmore and Sheldon. If there really was no relationship between the two save for when Sheldon was the campaign manager, on what basis did Longmore formulate the view that Sheldon was the perfect and indeed the only candidate for the deputy position?

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Stephen Brown says...
5:54pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Having listened to the interview, assuming it's the full version, there is no misunderstanding of context in the interview. He clearly hasn't learnt anything despite the furore. The guy is simply not up to the job and doesn't get it. Is he any different to any other public figure in this respect? Debateable. Proves what a farce this whole 'elected commissioner' thing is.

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spider666 says...
6:52pm Mon 14 Jan 13

So if Mr Longmore doesn't know Mr Sheldon as he states how on earth could he know he was up for the job without going through the due process.Something needs to be done to sort this mess out.

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Peter Huntington says...
7:01pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Longmore is clearly not up to the job. However his deputy was appointed and however good or bad he is, why does he not iunderstand that it is not acceptable to have two former officers of the same police force as PCC and Deputy for roles where they have to hold the police in West Mercia to account? His comments about sham procedures are just silly. He just doesn`t get it.

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Jack the Giantkiller says...
7:04pm Mon 14 Jan 13

This only goes to demonstrate that Mr Longmore has no integrity and is clealry willing to lie when it suits his purpose. The more he says in public the more he digs a hole for himself.
It is very worrying that he can hold an important public position and be so arrogant and so naive at the same time. A very dangerous combination. If he has any integrity whatsoever he should take the only decent course and resign, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

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blueworcs says...
7:19pm Mon 14 Jan 13

"Arrogant "Is the only word I can legally use to describe this person.....

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Give Up! says...
7:50pm Mon 14 Jan 13

If I read this correctly... He regrets not being dishonest and breaking the law by aiding a deception or fraud.. Regret means if given another opportunity were provided he would take that option. Untenable position me thinks!!

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jovialcommonsense says...
8:33pm Mon 14 Jan 13

I think I'm starting to like this guy, he's so thick skinned and bullish that he might even do a decent job as PCC.

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PoorJoey says...
10:53pm Mon 14 Jan 13

totally understand his point

"if you going to deceive the public you may as well do it properly"

i don't think there is going to be a next time tho !!!!!!

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PaulMeUnder says...
10:06am Tue 15 Jan 13

This guy is the Basil Fawlty of politics! Brilliant.

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one94 says...
12:39pm Tue 15 Jan 13

PaulMeUnder wrote:
This guy is the Basil Fawlty of politics! Brilliant.
He's our very own Boris

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hagleywhinger says...
5:15pm Tue 15 Jan 13

We all recognise that the Police do a great job in many respects but you cannot ignore some very unpleasant facts on the other side of the equation. I did not vote for Longmore so his alleged corruption regarding the appointment of his Deputy, another ex police officer, might give cause for concern? Do we all remember 1. Manchester's CC saying the middle classes have lost respect for the police 2. some officers abuse generous sick pay and some have other jobs 3.there is a very generous early retirement scheme and their similarly generous pensions are paid for by the rest of us 4. their involvement in leaks to the press 5. they send e mails claiming to be members of the public and campaign to get a Minister sacked 5. they lied about the Hillsborough disaster 6. there have been infamous cases when police beatings led to false confessions 7. a sad drunk man was pushed to his death in London by a manic officer with a violent record. I'm sure others could give a similar list of examples.Makes you think doesn't it?

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Andy_R says...
6:55pm Tue 15 Jan 13

So he regrets not deceiving the public and conspiring to defraud the public of £50,000?

Surely he has to resign, it's blatantly obvious that he's hopelessly incompetent to do the job.

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TDH123 says...
8:01pm Tue 15 Jan 13

Boris is a thoroughly inspirational, charismatic, transparent and capable true leader. Mr Longmore has none of these attributes!

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Malvernrob says...
8:54pm Tue 15 Jan 13

What is wrong with this paper and all this hot air about a guy who has only been in office a few weeks. I didn't agree with the role in the first place, but now we have it, let's wait and see whether the guy is up to the job, if not then we can slate him. As for appointing his deputy, I think he did exactly the right thing and I would have done exactly the same, ie appoint someone you know and can work with rather than getting someone you know nothing about and have imposed upon you. Come on people, give the guys a chance and let's see whether they are up to the job. The Police and crime panel are clearly politically motivated which is a great shame, but you have to expect that from politicians.
Lets reserve our angst for Miss May and her ridiculous policies and decisions, now there's someone who shouldn't be in office.

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sjones says...
6:51pm Wed 16 Jan 13

Can everyone who is ranting about this guy actually listen to the interview because if you do you will hear for yourself that he has been misquoted. When what he would do differently he starts by say "Well, I suppose I could have said, if I'd thought about it, I could have had a shame election" He goes on, after being interpreted, to explain "No, No, thats the thing I wouldn't do. I was being honest . . ." Eloquent, no. Liar, no, not that either, but why let the truth get in the way of a good headline eh?

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Landy44 says...
5:05pm Fri 18 Jan 13

Listened to it - It's pretty conclusive evidence of how this fool (because that's all he can be based on the evidence) "thinks".

He's not up to the job skillswise, character wise or integrity wise, and is communicationally challenged!

I don't agree we need the role. I didn't vote on principle, but didn't see any sensible candidates regardless.

It seems this is one of many similar situations repeated throughout the UK, and is a great example of the wasteful bureacracy that is bringing this country to it's knees.

Shame on everyone involved.

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chapski75 says...
5:45pm Fri 18 Jan 13

Again his Deputy comes to his rescue!! I'm not sure what it is that Bill Longmore brings to the role of Police Commissioner, but with his severe lack of a way with words, poor judgement, and a serious lack of respect or understanding for the public he is supposed to represent, it's very difficult to see what he does for his £75k a year salary.

The fact that he suggests he'd like to have "duped" the public is a real testament to the character of the man. Was his knowledge of the police from the right side of the law? He conned his way into the position and is trying to make himself credible.

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Lew Smoralz says...
9:34am Sat 19 Jan 13

What Longmore said was taken out of context and distorted.

It was naive of him to say it in the first place, but that does not mean that he is a bad person, only that political wolves abused his naivety.

For all our sakes, we need to leave the man alone and let him get on with his job and judge him on that, not on political hysteria!

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