Jonathan Walker: Will we have a say on mayor?
Jul 30 2010 By Jonathan Walker
Is the Government going to create a Birmingham mayor without giving us a referendum first?
It looks possible. Nobody knows for sure because Ministers aren’t saying.
The Draft Structural Reform Plan published by the Department for Communities and Local Government contains a wealth of information about proposals to reform local government, including a number of specific dates.
Ministers will “develop options for transition to Mayors” between November this year and November 2011, which is the same month a Localism Bill authorising mayors in England’s 12 biggest cities will become law.
Elections to choose those mayors will be held in May 2012.
But the policy originally set out by the Conservatives, while they were in opposition, was to hold referenda in big cities asking whether we wanted mayors or not. This vote was likely to take place in May 2011.
There’s no date for a referendum in the Government paper – just a note that mayors will be created “subject to confirmatory referenda”.
What does “confirmatory” mean in this context?
To put it another way, how is a “confirmatory referendum” different to a normal referendum?
I haven’t been able to find out, because the Department for Communities and Local Government refuses to say.
But in general, you don’t confirm something before it’s happened. It’s a point made by Dermot Finch, head of the Centre for Cities think tank, who wrote on his blog: “Holding referendums first would be the most transparent option, and is probably the LibDems’ preference.
“But there’s a risk of a ‘no’ vote in many cities, especially if the mayoral powers on offer are not big enough.”
He speculates that the Government might be planning to impose mayors and then ask voters whether they want to go back to the old system “a year or two later, once the mayor has settled in”.
The Government launches a consultation on its proposals in November, when all may be revealed. For now, we can only guess how Birmingham is to be governed.
