City Hall has this morning announced that Tim Parker, the businessman brought in by Boris Johnson to reform the Greater London Authority and chair Transport for London, will be stepping down from his position as ‘First Deputy Mayor’.
Following Parker’s appointment in May opposition parties accused Mayor Boris Johnson of delegating his entire role to an unelected employee and criticised the Mayor for handing out honourific ‘Deputy Mayor’ titles. Despite the title Parker‘s position was merely one of ten staff posts open to the Mayor to appoint under the 1999 Greater London Authority Act.
Speaking at the time Labour’s leader on the London Assembly Len Duvall said: “Londoners need to know who is actually running their city. Is it Boris Johnson, who yesterday did not know that one of his deputies has been making major planning decisions on his behalf? Or is it his coterie of unelected appointees?.”
In a statement issued this morning Mr Parker said “I look forward to advising Boris on an ongoing basis on transport. I have concluded, however, that it would not be appropriate for an unelected official to chair a body which is responsible for most of the money and a large part of the brief of an elected Mayor. I also agree with the Mayor that my position as adviser does not justify my full time and exclusive commitment to the Greater London Authority, or the title of First Deputy Mayor. We have therefore decided to adjust the management structure and abolish that position.”
Announcing that he would continue to chair the board of Transport for London instead of handing over to Parker, Mayor Johnson said he “was delighted when Tim Parker agreed to take charge of the Board on my behalf. Over the last few weeks, however, it has become increasingly apparent to both of us that the nature of the decisions that need to be take are highly political and there is no substitute for me, as the directly elected Mayor, being in charge. There are limits, therefore, to what can be delegated.”
City Hall has confirmed that although Parker will still serve on the board of TfL he won’t be remain an employee of the GLA.
Commenting on Parker’s departure Mike Tuffrey AM, the leader of the Liberal Democrat group at the London Assembly, said: “To lose one advisor is unfortunate, to lose two is careless but to lose three in four months shows the wheels are coming off this new administration.”
Tuffrey added, ”Why is Boris losing yet another advisor? Has Tim Parker discovered that running London isn’t as easy as running private business?”
Related Article: Parker Resignation Reactions
I suspect this has a lot to do with Tory central office. Once Boris got elected (which no-one really believed he would – even the hardened campaigners were surprised) I think the ‘master plan’ was to promote this ‘delegative atmosphere’ – which basically is taking the responsibilities of the Mayor and getting other people to shoulder them. This way the mayor (and the reputation of the Tory party) is protected. If something screws up then the mayor can get rid of one of his deputies – and stay clean himself. Unfortunately this plan is great on paper, but not so great in practice.
I agreee that the Mayor does have some responsibilities which he doesn’t need to have and these should be identified and passed on to committee or the GLA. However you can’t have a mayor who is simply the PR face – it just won’t work and is likely to cause confusing and conflicting statements (as we have seen already) because the mayor doesn’t actually know what his deputies have decided and said on his behalf.
One would have thought that the Tory party would have worked out exactly what they were going to do with a Boris Mayoralty long before the vote.
They could have had all the people lined up, all the ducks in a row, and then presented London with a clear vision.
What is puzzling me even more is that they have `borrowed` people from Francis Maude office etc – could they not have found some grandees to do the jobs gratis.
Or is it as i suspect with the Tories, all to do with money and no one really in the higher echelons believes in public service for the sake of it?
Why are people wasting their time discussing Boris? How can you possibly take him seriously – all he’s good for is discrediting the Tories – so hopefully his one term in office may prove useful afterall
Sod Mayor – Ken for Prime Minister
‘We have therefore decided to adjust the management structure and abolish that position’….Brilliant, the Prince of Darkness finally sacks himself! He should give his £1 back too!