Pepys: How to make a mayor

Pepys | Issue 6 | Magazine

From the Archive

LEEDS , ENGLAND - MAY 19: (L-R) Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire, Jamie Driscoll, Mayor of the North of Tyne Combines Authority, Lisa Nandy, Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities & Local Government, Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Steve Rotherham, Mayor of City of Liverpool Region, Labour Leader, Keir Starmer, Dan Norris, Mayor of the West of England and Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire travel by bus to the Stourton Park and Ride facility on May 19, 2022 in Leeds , England. Metro mayors are directly elected by citizens in their area, and also known as combined authority mayors. The mayor and the combined authority, exercise the powers and functions devolved from Government, set out in the local area's devolution deal. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

The government should think carefully before introducing more regional mayors

In the spring of 2008, the journalist and food writer AA Gill found himself suffering through the thankless task of covering London’s third mayoral election. He looked around in disgust at the “inverted fantasy” of devolution prompted by a “fit of democratic largess” suffered by New Labour. For Gill, London’s devolution spawned from “a fashionable moment in devolved government”. On this point at least he has been proved wrong. Devolution has become increasingly trendy; the government says it wants a “devolution revolution”. It’s difficult to find anyone who disagrees with the making of more mayors. In fact, it’s difficult to find many who disagree with much in the government’s Levelling Up white paper, which was published in February. After all, the UK is famously centralised. Andrew Lewer MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Devolution, says the group’s research demonstrates that the UK has one of the most regionally unequal economies in the world. During the pandemic, p...

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