A WEEK really is a long time in politics, and in Liverpool, as ever, the intrigue and the mysteries continue.
Last Thursday, Liverpool Confidential exclusively speculated that Liverpool would be introducing an elected mayor WITHOUT giving electors a chance to decide if they wanted one.
Today, Council Leader Joe Anderson confirmed the city is making moves to go straight to a mayor without a referendum of the city’s population.
The certainty of Joe Anderson winning
is so strong it would take a brave, brave
and perhaps foolhardy bookie to take bets
The splash in yesterday’s Times outlined the new powers available to Liverpool and a string of other cities if they voted in referendums this May for an elected mayor. The Government also announced the process would be fast-tracked to enable the elections for the new mayors this November.
Uncle JoeSo why is Liverpool now going to have an election for mayor as soon as May 3 – six months ahead of the rest of the field?
Councillor Anderson says bringing the move forward will give Liverpool an extra £130m - a rich goody bag from the Coalition Government - and would put Liverpool ahead of Manchester and other cities.
That inducement could well be good enough reason to impose the biggest change in the way Liverpool is ruled since the reign of Queen Victoria.
Would that gold-plated carrot, dangled by David Cameron, still be available if Liverpool followed the timetable laid down for all of the cities?
It’s now clear there have been behind-the-scenes discussions and negotiations about what would be on the table for Liverpool as a reward for bringing in an elected mayor. Those talks have been going on since last autumn, without a murmur to opposition city councillors.
But it seems there is some disquiet among a number of Labour councillors about the way this process is being handled.
What happens now? Within a few days a special meeting of Liverpool City Council will be called to enable all 90 city councillors to vote on introducing an elected Mayor in May without a referendum.
That meeting has to take place before a February deadline to allow the legalities to be in place for an election on May 3.
It will only happen if there is a two-thirds majority in the council chamber on the night. Currently Labour holds 62 of the 90 seats – ensuring a majority, but only if all Labour councillors vote. Of course some of the 28 councillors on the opposition benches, Lib Dems, Liberals, Greens and Independents, may also back the proposal.
Early next week, the Labour group will hold a meeting to decide which way it will vote. If, as expected, the group supports a May election for a mayor, Labour councillors will be ‘whipped’ to support the motion. That means they will have to vote Yes or risk the consequences.
It seems unthinkable that anybody but Joe Anderson will stand as Labour’s candidate, though there will be a list of others wanting the job. Former BBC man and campaigner for an elected mayor Liam Fogarty has already stated his intention to stand in a November electiion
The certainty of Joe Anderson winning is so strong it would take a brave, brave and perhaps foolhardy bookie to take bets.
Joe Anderson has earned praise for the way he has managed an almost mission impossible, facing cruel government cuts in spending for Liverpool.
Liverpool suffered the body blow of the worse financial settlement in the country when the government was dishing out money last year to town halls.
Some may now ask if Liverpool is doing a deal with the devil to claw some of that back, or has Anderson and the Labour group outsmarted Whitehall by winning a dream windfall.
'People elsewhere get ballots. We get backroom deals. That's the Liverpool way'
Campaigner for an elected mayor Liam Fogarty condemned Cllr Joe Anderson's move as a cynical grab for power, but as the political sound-bites flew into the air today, he added that he would be still throw his hat in the ring as a candidate for City Mayor, whenever an election is held.
Liam Fogarty condemns the
move but will stand anyway"The message is clear," he said, "if you live in Birmingham, Leeds or Manchester you'll have your say; in Liverpool, you'll have what Joe says.
“People elsewhere get ballots. We get backroom deals. That's the Liverpool way.
“Joe Anderson's manoeuvre is about fast-tracking himself to a 'coronation' as Mayor.
“Cllr Anderson's unseemly rush to an election on his terms is another example of old politics, Liverpool-style.
"Voters will get the chance to reject this type of politics on May 3rd. They should seize that chance.”
Meanwhile, the deputy leader of the Liverpool Lib Dem oppositon, Cllr Richard Kemp, addressed Cllr Anderson via his blog, following an emailed war of words earlier today.
Richard Kemp accuses
Labour of being 'too scared
to trust the people"This is the biggest change in the governance of Liverpool since the 1890s," he wrote.
"Liverpool is not owned by the Labour Party or the council as a whole it is ‘owned’ by the people. It is their right to choose our system of governance not ours.
He added: "I have no doubt that the people of Liverpool would have voted No in a referendum, having seen the dreadful state of affairs in Stoke, which has already removed the mayoral model and Doncaster, which will a referendum in may to do the same.
"Unfortunately they will not have the chance because you are too scared to trust the people."
