Starmer to meet with new team of mayors to discuss devolution after local elections boost

Published

1 year ago

May 13, 2024

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Sir Keir Starmer will bring together Labour’s newly expanded team of mayors on Monday to develop a “gold standard” for growing regional economies.

It comes after a string of victories in the local elections, with Labour seizing the West Midlands mayoralty after a knife-edge battle and Sadiq Khan seeing off Tory challenger Susan Hall to win a historic third term in London.

At a meeting in the West Midlands, Sir Keir will tell the mayors that boosting regional growth will be “top of the agenda” in Labour’s devolution plans if it wins the next general election, and that he wants local leaders to be a “core part” of growing their economies.

However, with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves committing to tough “fiscal rules”, it is not clear if there will be any extra funding for local areas.

Speaking ahead of the first meeting, the Labour leader said: “These local elections showed that the British public is ready to put their trust in this changed Labour Party.

“We will repay that trust by delivering economic growth for everyone, everywhere in partnership with our Labour mayors.

“Our growing team of Labour mayors is already setting the agenda and delivering for local people despite a failing Tory government that is choking off our economy and hoarding power in Westminster.”

Sir Keir has previously pledged to oversee a “fundamental shift” in politics through devolution and its “Take Back Control Act”, which he said would give new powers to regional mayors over transport, skills, energy, and planning – something he branded “full-fat devolution”.

Sky News has previously reported on how Sue Gray, the civil service partygate investigator turned chief of staff, has been key in improving the relationship between the Leader of the Opposition’s Office (LOTO) and the metro mayors, which has sometimes been seen as strained due to disagreements over policy, including the war in Gaza.

In a display of strengthened ties, Sir Keir will tomorrow point to work already being done by Labour’s mayors – such as Andy Burnham’s bus rollout in Greater Manchester – and say this can help set a “gold standard” for future Local Growth Plans.

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But the Conservatives said Labour’s mayors “have spent more time wading in on international issues they have no control over rather than delivering on people’s priorities”.

Tory party chairman Richard Holden added: “We are boosting regional growth and creating thriving communities, investing over £15bn in projects across the UK and backing 75 towns through our Long-Term Plan for Towns. Labour would take us back to square one.”

What seats did Labour win?

Labour’s wins included Richard Parker’s shock victory over Conservative Andy Street in the West Midlands, Claire Ward becoming the East Midlands’s first elected mayor, Kim McGuinness winning the new North East mayoral election, and David Skaith winning the new York & North Yorkshire mayoralty – which includes Mr Sunak’s Richmond constituency.

As well as London, the party retained mayoralties including Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and the Liverpool City Region.

The Tories held on to the Tees Valley mayoralty but otherwise suffered a mauling from the electorate, also losing nearly 500 council seats and the Blackpool South by-election.

Labour said the Tories had “failed to level up” the country, pointing to its analysis of Office for National Statistics data showing the average gap in gross domestic product per person between London and other combined authorities in England averaged £29,000 in 2022.

Levelling up was at the heart of former prime minister Boris Johnson’s 2019 Conservative manifesto.

Speaking last month, Sir Keir told Sky News it was the “right policy” but lambasted Mr Johnson’s “failure” to deliver it, while accusing his successor Mr Sunak of “strangling it at birth”.

However, despite criticising the Conservatives for not putting money behind the policy, Sir Keir refused to commit any new funding to local councils, which are straddling an estimated funding gap of £4bn over the next two years.

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Crypto’s path to legitimacy runs through the CARF regulation

Published

7 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Published

13 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.

MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.

In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.

“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.

“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.

“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.

The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.

It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.

“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.

“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”