Mark Morrison, a musician, has said that he will not be running for mayor of Leicester.
The R&B singer intended to defeat Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby the next year by campaigning on a platform of combating gang and knife crime.
But he claimed that the lack of support from the community where he was raised and Leicester City Council had forced him to give up his political aspirations.
It “never felt like he [Morrison] was serious about it,” according to Mr. Soulsby.
The 50-year-old Mr. Morrison turned his penthouse apartment in the heart of Leicester into a recording studio and gave roughly 100 budding musicians free recording time.
He said he had hoped that through supporting musical talent, the city’s young people may be kept away from a life of crime and violence.
According to LeicestershireLive, the two publicly feuded after Mr. Soulsby declared he would not utilize council funds to construct a new recording studio for Morrison.
Mr. Soulby stated: “I was unaware that he still desired to serve as mayor. I assumed he had given up on it long ago ” He never seemed sincere about it.
He was serious about trying to persuade the council to fund to build him a new recording studio, but I wasn’t willing to support him because he never provided any evidence that it would assist reduce knife crime.
