Liverpool's ruling Labour group have voted to back the removal of the elected mayor position that they brought in 10 years ago.
At a meeting of the group last night, which was not open to the public, the group of councillors backed a move to the leader and cabinet model that was in place before Joe Anderson became the first elected mayor of the city in 2012.
The council is currently consulting with the public on what governance model people would like to see for the city moving forward. The options include sticking with the current system, where an elected mayor is voted in by the city every four years, a leader (who is a councillor), chosen by a vote of other councillors or by a system of one or more committees made up of elected councillors.
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The council and current Mayor Joanne Anderson have come under fire from some quarters for not offering a public vote on the governance options, something that Mayor Anderson had promised in her election campaign last year. The council said that after moving to a new election cycle , starting next year, it could not financially justify a full referendum and has instead sent consultation letters to every household in the city.
That consultation remains ongoing and last night the Labour group voted to campaign for a move back to the leader and cabinet model. It is a significant, if not unexpected, move and increases the likelihood that the elected mayoral position will be scrapped before the next set of elections in 2023.
The current consultation ends on June 20, after which the council will analyse the responses from the public before presenting them to a full council, likely to be in September. If the council then votes to bring in a change of governance style, it will take effect from the elections in May 2023 and will be binding on the Council for five years.
Tweeting after the meeting, Labour Cllr Nick Small said: "Pleased that Liverpool Labour adopted a position last night to campaign to scrap the Mayor and go back to having a Leader and Cabinet as our preferred option in the consultation on future governance."
Fellow Labour member Cllr Anthony Lavelle added: "Liverpool Labour will be campaigning to scrap the Mayoral position and return to Leader. Scrapping the mayor is the right thing for our city, our residents and council."
While Labour have now confirmed their position as backing the leader and cabinet model, the city's main opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, are backing the committee system.
