Birmingham, Manchester and six other cities reject mayoral system in blow to government policy

Bristol has voted to switch to a directly-elected mayor making it the only city so far to vote in favour of the mayoral system in referenda held in ten regional cities yesterday.

In Bristol 53% voted in favour of switching to the mayoral system, making it the only one of eight cities to have opted in favour of a directly-elected mayor in the referenda, which were imposed on the cities by the government鈥檚 Localism Act.

The prime minister had championed mayors as offering greater people power across England鈥檚 regional cities. Earlier this week he called for a 鈥淏oris in every city鈥�.

However, results today showed Birmingham, Sheffield, Wakefield and Newcastle had all said no to the mayoral system, following earlier no votes from Nottingham, Manchester, Coventry and Bradford.

The most resounding rejections were seen in Sheffield (65%), Coventry (64%), Wakefield and Newcastle (both 62%).

The count in Leeds is continuing.

In Liverpool, where the council opted to switch to the mayoral system without a referendum, incumbent Labour council leader Joe Anderson was elected mayor with nearly 60% of the vote.

Speaking to the BBC, communities secretary Eric Pickles played down the importance of the 鈥榥o鈥� votes.

He said: 鈥淚f I鈥檓 a fan of mayors, I鈥檓 an even bigger fan of localism and local people deciding.

鈥淚鈥檓 not so hung up on the structure of local government but I do feel that British cities - if they want to compete with Milan, Chicago and Frankfurt - then I think they鈥檒l have better chance with a mayor.

鈥淭hat isn鈥檛 to rule out other forms of governance. We have done a deal with the Greater Manchester authorities and are currently negotiating with Yorkshire to give a greater degree of authority to those areas.鈥�

However, the rejection of the plan does raise questions over the future of the government鈥檚 鈥榗ity deals鈥� policy, which pledges the devolution of more powers to cities to give them greater control of driving economic growth.

Under the 鈥榗ity deals鈥� plan, championed by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, the government had made clear it preferred to devolve powers to directly-elected mayors.

 

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