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Reform enters government for the first time with mayoral election wins

The UK now has two regional mayors representing the Reform party, following English local elections on May 1. This is the first time anyone from the party has held a government position at any level.

Andrea Jenkyns, formerly a Conservative government minister, is now the mayor of Greater Lincolnshire following an election win on May 1. She becomes the first Reform and Luke Campbell is now mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire. Both are new mayoralities, created as part of the government’s developing devolution plans.

The creation of more mayoralties meant that, perhaps inevitably, the near-monopoly that Labour held on mayors after the 2024 local elections has ended. But with an unproven track record, it’s reasonable to ask what we might expect from the new reform mayors as they take office.

Since the first devolution deals were signed back in 2014, English devolution has always been about the ability of local governments to convince Westminster to let go of power. The result has been that devolution deals have varied in strength across the country.

In broad terms, city regions have tended to get more powers, while others get slightly less. This means that not every new regional (also known as metro) mayor will be a budding Andy Burnham – though in practice most can expect to have core powers of housing, transport and education. Over time we have seen how the existing mayors have sought to inhabit those powers in their own way, and bring about their own priorities.

So, we now wait to see what that means for the new mayors as they take power. We already know that Jenkyns’ election manifesto touched upon the key powers the mayor will hold (transport, education and the economy) but her agenda on these was painted only in the broadest of brush strokes.

For example, there were promises to upgrade major roads, and to secure more funding for transport – although achieving both would require a willing Labour government to play nice. More realistic promises include more frequent buses which better serve parts of what is a large rural area, and creating skills bodies to work with local employers.


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Elsewhere, however, the manifesto delved into the realm of memes and bogeymen. For example, Jenkyns has proposed creating “DOGE Lincolnshire”, mirroring Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in the US.

This promises to cut government waste and “ensure efficiency”. Yet, given the combined authority she heads was only constituted in February, it’s not quite clear what inefficiencies Jenkyns is referring to.

Another pledge is to push back against net zero – something that Reform seems to be using as their protest lodestar now that Brexit is no longer fertile feeding ground. Here, the policies seem to be to fight against national government policy on net-zero rather than anything really specific.

Playing nicely with central government

A regional mayor’s fate often hinges on their ability to interact effectively with central government – either by trying to secure concessions from it, or resisting it. Here, it will be very interesting to watch how Jenkyns, Campbell and the new Conservative mayor of Cambridge and Peterborough, Paul Bristow, assimilate.

They are now members of the Council of the Regions – which for the last 12 months has been largely a cosy cabal of Labour mayors (and Tory Ben Houchen).

Englands regional mayors outside 10 Downing Street.
The existing crop of mayors were almost all Labour.
Alamy/WENN

How will Reform mayors – and Jenkyns in particular do business with the others? She is known as a disruptor so it could change the dynamic significantly.

English local government is littered with examples of national government visiting retribution on local authorities for perceived transgressions. For example, most famously, Margaret Thatcher’s government abolished the Metropolitan Councils in 1986 for getting a bit too big for their boots. While there is no suggestion that will happen this time, current devolution deals are heavily premised on trust and ability to work with government.

The other issue will be how what started as a protest party deals with the minutiae of governing. Mario Cuomo, a former governor of New York, once famously said that you campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Sometimes, however, local government can be about the grammar – dealing with those minor details.

I remember interviewing a local councillor who once told me most of the time people want to talk about dog poo and bins. Equally, things like potholes are shown to be what residents want to see fixed.

From now on, Jenkyns and other reform-led councils will have a record that they will have to defend. Ultimately, while a manifesto that is half-built on memes might grab attention on election day, it probably isn’t going to make the buses run on time.

#Reform #enters #government #time #mayoral #election #wins

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