James Forsyth James Forsyth

Politics: Taking back the cities

issue 17 March 2012

When the Prime Minister’s chief adviser, Steve Hilton, quits Downing Street in May, he’ll leave behind what he believes to be a mechanism to solve the Conservatives’ biggest electoral problem, which is their failure to win urban seats. On 3 May, ten of England’s largest cities will vote on whether to join London in having a directly elected mayor.

These mayoralties will, if the Conservatives play their cards right, provide a platform from which the party can rebuild its metropolitan appeal. Directly elected mayors could provide the accountability that local politics has so lacked in the postwar era. For the first time in generations, people might know who is running their city. There will be someone who has a mandate to get things done and the power to push reforms through the local bureaucracy.

As one urban Tory MP observes, ‘We have no chance of winning outright control of the council in my city.

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