Metro mayors: an experiment in democracy
When he was chancellor, George Osborne pushed for England’s big urban regions to have their own directly elected mayors, because he thought it would serve his party’s interests, said The Independent. The idea was that strong “metro mayors” would grab the Tories a foothold in Labour-dominated areas, as Boris Johnson had done as London mayor. It hasn’t quite worked out like that. In last week’s elections, Labour won nine out of ten metro-mayor contests. Some Labour victories verged on the “North Korean”; in Liverpool City Region, Labour’s Steve Rotheram took 68%. The results from two newly created mayoralties, in particular, will “terrify” Tory MPs because of what they say about next year’s election, said Paul Waugh in The i Paper. Labour won in the key parliamentary battleground of the East Midlands, and also in York & North Yorkshire, a traditional Tory heartland and home to Rishi Sunak’s own constituency.
But whatever your political persuasion, the good news is that metro mayors are “starting to transform” politics, said Trevor Phillips in The Times. A further blow for the Tories was losing Andy Street, the former John Lewis boss who’d been West Midlands mayor since 2017. But Street, who accepted defeat with grace, embodies a new strain of impressive regional politician: a non-partisan pragmatist. Similarly, the Conservatives’ sole winner, Ben Houchen in Tees Valley, is so semidetached from his party that he “conveniently forgot” to wear a Tory rosette on election night, and seemingly “couldn’t wait to see the back” of Sunak after an awkward victory photocall. For Labour, too, Andy Burnham is a selfproclaimed “place first, party second” mayor. Increasingly, these dynamic, independentminded politicians are standing up for their “democratic fiefdoms”, no matter who’s in power at Westminster. They are helping to drain power from the centre, which is a welcome prospect.
I’m all for more decentralisation and less partisan politics, said Camilla Cavendish in the FT. But I’m also in favour of accountability and simplicity. England and Wales have just voted for “a bewildering mosaic” of ten metro mayors, 37 police and crime commissioners and 2,636 local councillors. Yet “few normal people can say what these roles are responsible for or how they relate to the local MP”. When Labour returns to power, it should abolish all the metro mayors, said Simon Jenkins in The Guardian. They should be replaced by mayors who actually run their local authorities, and the crucial services that they provide. It a simple slogan: “a mayor for every town and city, now. A proper one.”