LONDON — Twenty-five years of a London mayor should have been cause for celebration. But the day came and went without a birthday cake in sight.
In May 2000, residents of the British capital chose their own mayor for the first time — marking a huge moment in the then-Labour government’s idealistic bid to hand power away from Whitehall.
It’s since become a model for other mayoralties across the country. Yet despite its longevity under three very different individuals, the mayoralty turns 25 with lingering doubts about its purpose and power.
“I remember saying at the time that it would be very, very disappointing if in about 20 years’ time, it was exactly the same kind of forum,” said former Labour London Minister Tony McNulty, who helped craft the office. “That’s more or less where it’s stuck.”
City Hall vs Whitehall
While the mayoralty arrived not with a bang but with a whimper, it soon found its feet.
Just 34 percent of the electorate voted in the 1998 referendum approving its establishment. Yet two larger-than-life politicians — first Ken Livingstone, then Boris Johnson — helped put rocket-boosters under the institution, which stepped into a power vacuum created when Margaret Thatcher as Tory PM scrapped the Greater London Council after endless clashes with its left-wing leadership.
“It was a bit of an anomaly that London had no citywide institutions or democratically elected institutions,” said Akash Paun, a program director at the Institute for Government think tank. “London was missing out from not having a strategic authority.”
Handing power away from the notoriously centralized U.K. government inevitably led to fights with Whitehall civil service.
The first mayor, Livingstone, was a left-wing veteran of the GLC, who ran as an independent after a falling out with Labour. He riled up ministers by introducing a new congestion charge on vehicles traveling in central London — but the policy stuck, and remains a defining achievement of the office. Livingstone ran for a second time, now back in the Labour fold, before being defeated by Tory big beast Johnson in 2008.
Much of Johnson’s colorful time as mayor coincided with a Conservative government in Westminster — but the scraps kept coming.
After the capital was hit by a wave of riots in 2011, Johnson sparked a “massive row” with the government, reflects Tory peer and Johnson’s former Deputy London Mayor Edward Udny-Lister, after he backed the use of water cannon to quell unrest.
“That was a very clear tension point where the mayor wanted to go further than the Home Office was willing to go,” Udny-Lister says. Johnson also struggled to make headway on a controversial new bridge across the Thames or win support for his beloved Thames Estuary airport (dubbed “Boris Island.”)
Divisions were even more apparent when incumbent Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan dealt with Conservative governments during his first eight years in charge. They opposed his expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which charged polluting vehicles a daily fee, and helped gift the struggling Tories a rare bit of electoral success.
Even Labour returning to government hasn’t halted the war of words between the two hubs of power. Earlier this month, Khan said he was “concerned” that Labour’s spending review — which squeezed the Home Office — “could result in insufficient funding for the Met[ropolitan Police] and fewer police officers.”
Despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves agreeing a multi-year deal for Transport for London, the chancellor prioritized investment in areas outside the south east. The mayor said it was “disappointing that there is no new commitment … from the Treasury to invest in the new infrastructure London needs.”
Still, Jack Brown, co-editor of London’s Mayor at 20 and a lecturer in London Studies at King’s College London, suggested these clashes — including Khan’s strident anti-Brexit stance at a time the Conservative government was trying to leave the bloc — were a sign of the system working.
“There’s no reason why a bit of creative tension between the two layers would automatically be a bad thing,” he said, arguing it was “right for someone representing London to take a different stance” on Brexit to the government.
Others see a role with limited policy powers — including transport, housing, policing and the environment — struggling to make itself heard in the corridors of power.
Former Tory London Minister Paul Scully — who said his own role had “always felt like a bit of an afterthought” — reflected that he had tried giving the mayor more access to Whitehall, but a conducive working relationship with Khan didn’t always materialize.
Local hero
There are also growing calls for more power for London’s elected representatives beyond the mayoralty — and a recognition that the capital city, with its stark contrasts in wealth and demography, may need more nuance than the top job alone can provide.
Earlier this year, all 32 leaders of London borough councils called for a “seat at the table” in any settlement on new powers for the capital, stressing joint-decision making is essential to deliver for residents.
“There is still an inner, central London, West End dimension” to the mayor’s focus, said McNulty, who previously represented Harrow East in outer London. “None of the three mayors to date have really captured or represented properly the notion of the difference and varieties of suburbs,” he argued.
Conservative London Assembly Member Keith Prince agreed, stressing “the needs and demands of the two different types of boroughs are very different.”
“Any government or mayor or elected figure is going to have more of an appeal in some places than others,” Institute for Government’s Paun pushed back, pointing to Khan’s three back-to-back election victories.
Questions about accountability also linger. While the mayor faces Londoners in an election every four years, the scrutiny afforded to the role in between those high-profile votes is hotly debated.
The 25-member elected London Assembly gets to question the mayor just ten times a year, and their actual powers are limited. The mayor’s £20.7 billion budget can only be amended with a two-thirds majority that is tricky to reach given the assembly’s partially proportional electoral system.
“We have no power to force the mayor to do anything,” Prince said. “The mayor can just completely ignore the London Assembly.”
The emphasis on a strong executive figure has fueled accusations the Assembly is a poor check on the mayor. “Over the last 20-odd years, assemblies have come and gone, got elected and virtually sunk without trace,” said McNulty, calling for the Assembly itself to have “much, much more teeth.”
Others push back at that characterization of the GLA. “We are able to persuade the mayor to do things that Londoners are telling us that he needs to shift,” said Green Assembly member Caroline Russell.
“The purpose of the Assembly [was] to scrutinize the mayor, not to substitute their decisions for the mayor,” said Nick Raynsford, the former London minister who helped devise the institution in the first place.
Selling London PLC
On top of administering the city, London’s global reputation demands the mayor spends plenty of time overseas promoting the capital — and even skeptics of the mayoralty agree this element of the job has been a success.
“That outward-facing, international dimension is hugely important,” said McNulty.
Raynsford said all three mayors “have been significant players on the international stage” — with Johnson undertaking lots of travel after the 2008 financial crisis. The mayor’s international remit was most effective in London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympics. “I don’t think we’d have won the Olympics if we hadn’t had a directly elected citywide government,” said Raynsford.
Yet Scully said mayors are not ultimately judged on their posturing on the global stage. “People tend to just vote on the local matters,” he said. “People don’t express an opinion on London as a global city.”
Despite Khan’s electoral success, he’s been accused of failing to act on rising knife crime or London’s struggling post-Covid night-life scene. He’s also facing increased levels of homelessness in the capital.
Khan’s recent call for some cannabis possession to be decriminalized, despite the mayoralty having no powers over drug policy, highlights how the post can involve making bold statements rather than direct powers.
Khan’s office talked up his action building council homes, making public transport more affordable and providing free school meals for all state primary school children as examples of concrete action.
“Sadiq has a much closer working relationship with this Government than in the past, with more positive engagement and close working with Downing Street … than in any time under the previous administration,” a spokesperson for the mayor said before the spending review.
They added: “Sadiq also has a good relationship with the London Assembly and recognizes the important work it does to hold him to account on behalf of all Londoners. He looks forward to continuing to work with all aspects of local, regional and national government to improve our public services and unlock growth.”
Riding high on three election victories, Khan’s own political future looks secure. But gripes about the mayoralty’s shortcomings will likely live on if he does decide to bow out in 2028.
“We need to go back to ground level and say: If you were going to devolve power in London again, would you set it up the same way that you’ve done?” argued Scully. “I doubt if they would.”
Stefan Boscia contributed reporting.
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