One of the least spoken about shifts in English politics over the last decade is the move towards mayors. Starting with the establishment of the Mayor of London by Tony Blair in 2000, successive Conservative governments have created 11 mayoral combined authorities, each with its own directly elected mayor, since 2014.
These include most of England’s major cities, from Birmingham and Bristol to Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and Newcastle. As a result, over 27 million people of England’s 55.98 million are now governed by a mayor – that’s nearly half of the nation’s population.
On those numbers alone, it seems likely that mayors will play some role in the upcoming general election. Mayors often enjoy a higher profile than local councillors, which means that how they fare at the polls is a good indication of what could transpire when the whole country heads to vote.
