Labour mayor candidate Siôn Simon has disowned party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr Simon refused to answer when asked repeatedly whether Mr Corbyn would make a good Prime Minister.
And he said he didn't want Mr Corbyn to come to the West Midlands to campaign for him.
He was appearing alongside Conservative mayor candidate Andy Street at a hustings event organised by The Times, with a week to go until the election of a West Midlands regional mayor on May 4.
Asked whether Mr Corbyn should be Prime Minister, he insisted: “It’s got nothing to do with the election we are having here.”
Mr Simon suggested his campaign had little to do with the Labour Party nationally.
“Devolution will apply to government and it will apply to political parties,” Mr Simon said.
The Times reports that Mr Simon was asked why Mr Corbyn had not been seen in the West Midlands campaigning for him - in contrast to Conservative leader Theresa May , who has made a number of visits to the West Midlands to support Andy Street.
Mr Simon said: “We don’t need London politicians to come and patronise us or give us a bit of grace. I don’t do national politics.”
He added that he did not need Corbyn’s “stardust sprinkled on us”.
However, the Birmingham Mail has been told that plans were in place for Mr Corbyn to canvass with Mr Simon on April 18, during a visit to the West Midlands which also included a meeting with Birmingham Voluntary Service Council at Digbeth, Birmingham.
This was cancelled when Theresa May chose that day to announce plans for an early general election. Although Mr Corbyn still attended the Digbeth meeting, he then returned to Westminster to prepare Labour’s response to the election announcement.
Mr Simon was more positive about Mr Corbyn last year, when he was seeking Labour's nomination to be the candidate in the West Midlands mayor contest, and published a photograph of the two of them together on his website.
