Inglis aims to prove he is capable of being Lord Mayor

The councillor will be officially installed as the city’s 99th Mayor later this month, following his group’s landslide victory in the council elections, in which Lib Dem Deputy Lord Mayor Mark Collinson lost his seat.

Coun Inglis said he had thought long and hard about taking up the role - and whether he had the “right personality to appeal to everybody.”

He added: “I hope over the next year to demonstrate I am perfectly capable of handling the job.”

He added jokingly: “I shall be keeping a metal cigarette case firmly in my left breast suit pocket to fend off any bullets.”

The former leader of Hull City Council and former police authority chairman once had a stand-off with David Blunkett, the then Home Secretary, in 2004, over the suspension of Humberside Police’s then chief constable David Westwood when the force was heavily criticised in a report into the Soham child murders.

The Myton ward councillor was suspended in June 2005 after his arrest over child abuse allegations dating back to the 1980s.

He was cleared of 10 charges at Leeds Crown Court in 2006.

The following year he revealed he was battling stomach cancer.

Coun Inglis said: “I expect some nutty tabloid to pick this up at some point and make a story of it because they don’t have anything to fill their paper but that’s the price of involvement in public life.”

He has already faced criticism that he is politicising the role after stating that being Lord Mayor would help raise his profile in his bid to become an elected police commissioner.

However he responded: “If you want the Mayoralty confined to people who don’t have a political view then don’t ask councillors to do it.

“That’s the way the system works. It takes a long time and a lot of experience before you get the chance to be Lord Mayor.”