‘Reform have won mayoralties. Can it deliver in them?’

Elections have taken place for four of England’s metro mayors – with voters in the West of England and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and for the first time, in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire giving their verdict on who should be given these increasingly important jobs. But what should happen next?

New mayors must deliver

It’s tempting to try to read into what the results can tell us about national politics, yet that would be a mistake. There is a certain arrogance in Westminster that says local elections matter only as a signal to national politics.

READ MORE: Council by council Labour gains and losses – and its position in each mayor race

These contests were not a dress rehearsal for a future general election but a crucial event for local democracy in their own right. Voters have chosen some of the most consequential leaders in the country.

Along with local councillors, these newly elected mayors will have significant responsibilities for shaping their local area, local services, and their local economies.

Local buses are an area where mayors can make change

As the spotlight now shifts from the campaigning to delivery, newly elected mayors must ensure that they act in their place’s best interests. When it comes to their priorities, all have spoken about the need to improve local buses, including increasing services, making them more reliable, and capping fares.

This is vital for local connectivity and opportunity. Here, mayors have the power to act decisively on this important and highly visible issue of concern for their residents, with strong evidence emerging that local control of buses can bring real benefits to communities.

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The new mayors have also spoken about working to seek to bring more government and public investment into their areas. Again, this is important. For too long, too many places have suffered from underinvestment.

The four new mayors will be in control of multi-million-pound annual investment funds, but each of them should work with central government to secure integrated settlements for their areas to enable greater flexibility in local spending choices over the longer term.

Reform’s agendas may be at odds with improving outcomes

Some elements of the new mayors’ agendas, notably the two new Reform mayors in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire, may, however, be at odds with improving outcomes in their places.

Andrea Jenkyns has spoken about the need for a DOGE-style efficiency drive on local spending and Luke Campbell has similarly talked of the need to control local council spending.

Given the perilous state of many local authority budgets as a result of over a decade of cuts under the previous government, it is likely that any such savings will be difficult to achieve without damaging local public services that many people rely on.

READ MORE: ‘Results so far say one thing: voters think change isn’t coming fast enough’

Additionally, the new mayor of Greater Lincolnshire and her party nationally have voiced opposition to the net zero agenda. Yet support for and investment in green industries to create good jobs and boost the local economy is vital to the Humber region in both Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire.

The new mayors in these areas will need to move beyond rhetoric and consider how they can back their region’s potential and deliver opportunity to their communities – even where this might mean diverging from their party’s national position.

The soft powers of metro mayors and the important convening role that they play between local actors and organisations means that it is vital they put place before party.

Local democracy must be strengthened

These latest contests were just the second wave of metro mayoral elections to have been contested under the first past the post (FPTP) voting system.

The previous Conservative government changed the voting system for mayoral elections from the supplementary vote (SV) – where electors can select both a first and second choice preference – to FPTP in 2022 in what was regarded as a cynical move driven by partisan political interest.

It is therefore surprising that Labour has not yet expressed a desire to reverse this decision since coming to office.

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The importance of the voting system in mayoral elections goes much beyond partisan interest, however. The use of FPTP for mayoral elections is damaging for local democracy, it limits voter choice and results in weaker mandates which risks undermining trust in local leaders just as devolution gains momentum.

As mayors gain more powers, legitimacy matters more than ever. The SV system delivers stronger mandates – under SV, no metro mayor was elected with less than 44% of the vote, the new mayor in the West of England has been elected on just 25% of the vote on a turnout of 30% under FPTP.

With the elections bill in progress, the government has the opportunity to put this democratic wrong, right. We need a voting system that strengthens local democracy and enables mayors to get on with the job.

The ‘Devolution Revolution’ Must Continue

The current government is rightly committed to the continued roll out of mayoral devolution in England. Across the country, current mayors are delivering vital change for their areas.

While some mayoral results may not have gone the way Labour wanted them to this week, the government should recognise that continuing its agenda to extend and deepen devolution across England is essential in helping to deliver the economic and democratic renewal that people want to see.

Read more on the 2025 local elections:

Results on the day

Analysis of the 2025 election results

• Starmer: ‘Labour must go further and faster to deliver after Runcorn defeat’
• Runcorn blame game begins – why did Labour lose?
• ‘Labour has lost in Runcorn – here are the eight things the party should do now‘
• MPs who could lose their seat on Runcorn by-election swing to Reform
• ‘Results so far say one thing: voters think change isn’t coming fast enough’
• Three ways to measure Labour’s success tonight
• ‘Uxbridgitis: If election results are grim, let’s not learn the wrong lessons again’
• Where’s Keir? PM barely features in Labour party election broadcasts for the locals
• The meme elections: Labour’s social media pivot to take fight to Farage

LabourList’s on-the-ground reports from the campaign

• Hull and East Yorkshire: Labour candidate spars with Reform’s boxing star in UK’s most disillusioned city
• Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Nik Johnson on why he’s standing down and Anna Smith on knife-edge Labour-Tory fight to replace him
• West of England: Tory and Green threats, Dan Norris and low voter awareness
• Lancashire: Long shadow of Gaza looms over key battleground

Inside the Runcorn campaign

• Mood on the doorstep: Labour’s last push for Tory voters to keep out Reform
• At least 150 Labour MPs visit – but Keir Starmer ain’t one
• Karen Shore interview: Labour candidate on Reform, the NHS and closing asylum hotels
• Runcorn poll: One in ten Labour voters expected to back Reform

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