Elected City Mayors are an opportunity for Labour – if the party takes a positive approach

Labour run Liverpool Council voted this week to go straight to the election in May for a directly elected mayor, bypassing the referendum. This is significant. Not only does this open up the opportunity for Labour to gain more powers in the City, but it also sets the tone for other cities facing referendums in May.

At present, Labour currently has four directly elected mayors; Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and Leicester. But many would argue that there should be more. Labour currently leads eight of the ten* councils where referendums are planned for May. The party also holds most of the parliamentary seats in these areas. Labour should therefore be in a strong position to win a future Mayoral election.

However, experience shows that Labour cannot take these referendums and elections for granted. Other areas with directly elected mayors – Doncaster, Hartlepool, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Tower Hamlets and North Tyneside – are all ‘Labour areas’ but Labour doesn’t hold the Mayoralty. Local Labour groups need to understand why this happened, so they can learn from past experience. And it is important to think about this before, rather than after the referendums.

Experience tells us that the move by Liverpool should be good for the Labour vote in the city, as going into the referendum and subsequent election with a positive case for a city mayor has worked in the past. While the areas that have been through the process have stories to tell of specific local circumstances, there is one thing that ties these results together. In the cases where the local party campaigned against the change to mayoral governance but the public chose to change the system, Labour haven’t been successful in winning the mayoral elections.

So this brings us back to the decision that Liverpool made this week. Aside from opening the door for this Labour run authority to potentially gain more powers – for example to stimulate economic development and growth – and create a very visible local democratic figure, this move could put them on the ‘front-foot’ going into the election. Liverpool have made a strong and positive case to the public for having a directly elected mayor – they want this position. Now it is down to the public to decide who it will be.

Labour in Leicester believe that there is a lot to be gained from the Mayoral model. In other cities there is an instinctive dislike of what some see as an unpopular leadership model that is being imposed on areas by the government. In places like Bradford and Wakefield there may be a tendency to focus on the Doncaster and Stoke examples, rather than look at the potential of the mayoral model. It can be politically transformative – as in Hackney – or put a city more on the map and show ambition – as in Leicester.

As David Miliband argued last week in the New Statesman Labour should look to build on its local government base. This is where the party currently has power and can build on this in the run up to the next general election. Local government is also a place where Labour can have a direct, positive influence on communities. The Mayoral referendums in the ten cities are going ahead regardless – it is now in the hands of local Labour parties to take control of events and shape the future of England’s biggest cities.

* Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield, Wakefield.

Laura Wilkes is a Policy Manager at Local Government Information Unit. She writes here in a personal capacity.