On the face of it, London mayor Sadiq Khan doesn’t have a huge amount in common with 19-year-old Terence Smith, Britain’s youngest mayor.
But Smith, who has been mayor of Goole council – population 19, 518– since May and Khan, who in May was elected mayor of the UK capital – population 8.7 million – have one key thing in common. They both understand the importance of Labour holding power in local government.
In his speech to the Labour party conference on Tuesday, Khan hammered home one single word in his speech – power. Repeating it 38 times he pointed out that Labour had been re-elected in Wales and in Bristol. “Labour is in power right now in Liverpool, Manchester and Southampton; in Newcastle, Glasgow and Cambridge; in Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds and Cardiff. Labour is in power in towns and cities the length and breadth of Britain.”
Khan and Carwyn Jones, the Welsh first minister, with their power over multibillion-pound budgets, can claim to be the two most powerful Labour politicians in the UK. And next year, there are likely to be a swath of Labour metro mayors in cities like Liverpool, Birmingham and Greater Manchester. As the Guardian’s Dave Hill points out, they will be well-placed to persuade a whole range of groups, including housing providers, public sector bodies, educators, voluntary organisations and businesses, to pursue progressive common goals.
In the conference hall and corridors of Liverpool’s Merseyside conference centre, Khan’s speech fell on the receptive ears of local council leaders from around the country, who know they are at a pivotal point. The government’s devolution agenda, moving power from Whitehall to local regions, may have been championed by a Conservative chancellor, but has been, for the most part, taken up by Labour councils keen for greater control over their own destiny.
Judith Blake, the leader of Leeds city council, says that despite Labour council leaders controlling more than 50% of the UK economy, the nature of that power had not yet completely sunk in. “We have not fully realised the potential of what we have got and this is what we are going to be working on,” she says. In a changing political landscape being shaped by the Brexit vote but also by the devolution of powers out to the regions, especially in the north, Labour needs to reclaim the agenda.
“We’ve taken our foot off the accelerator as a party, but there is now recognition that devolution is here and it’s going to stay,” says Blake.
And it is not just those that have embraced devolution and metro mayors who believe they have much to offer Labour. Nick Forbes, leader of Newcastle city council and chair of the Local Government Association Labour group, says local Labour councils have demonstrated in difficult circumstances that they have both credibility to govern and economic credibility.
“This is the experience that Labour will need to draw on for government nationally, because by 2020 the parliamentary Labour party will have had a decade of people with no experience of government,” he says. Forbes says he will be working closely with Jeremy Corbyn and the shadow cabinet. For him, the importance of local government to the future of the party cannot be overestimated.
Newcastle was one of the seven authorities in the north-east that failed to agree a devolution deal with the government earlier this month. Forbes, whose council voted in favour of the deal, says the region was “taking time to pause, reflect, let the dust settle and think about where next”. He says it is too early to come back with any alternative proposals, but says the need for investment in the north-east is so pressing that it is crucial that “one way or another we get back to the discussion table with government”.
And Smith, in Goole? He may be only 19, but he, too, echoes Khan’s words. For Smith, as for Khan, this is all about power – and not just in local government. Asked what he will do after this mayoral term ends next year and he comes to the end of his time as councillor, he was clear: “To stay in politics would be great ... and a seat in the house would be fantastic.”
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