MayorWatch

London News and Comment

There’s Only One Deputy Mayor

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There’s going to be a lot of confusion in some quarters following the first in what is likely to be a series of announcements.

This morning the Mayor’s press office announced that: ‘The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has today announced the appointment of Ray Lewis as Deputy Mayor for Young People.’

Now I’m an awkward sort of a chap and I have an issue with the use of the term ‘Deputy Mayor’ because the role of the Deputy Mayor is a constitutional one set out in the 1999 Greater London Authority Act.

The acts allows for “a” Deputy Mayor who “shall be appointed by the Mayor from among the Assembly members” and so Mr Lewis doesn’t fulfill the legal requirements under the 1999 to be called the Deputy Mayor.

The Mayor’s press office assure me that there’s no suggestion of this being the statutory Deputy Mayor (a post to which I hope he’ll appoint Brian Coleman assuming Labour’s Nicky Gavron is out of the frame) but for the life of me I can’t understand why the Mayor’s people are set on causing confusion by using the term.

Comments

  2. Why not just call him ‘adviser’ or ‘policy director’? There would have been uproar had Ken called Lee Jasper ‘Deputy Mayor’ but I suspect we won’t hear a squeak out of the Standard over this.

  3. Well, we don’t know yet if he’s going to appoint more deputy mayors with policy briefs as a proper ‘cabinet’.

    Ray Lewis is not a member of the Assembly so is precluded from the Deputy Mayor proper role.

    However, in the late 1990s/early 2000s several London Boroughs (Hammersmith and Lewisham) experimented with making their council cabinets each a deputy mayor, with the formal role of first deputy mayor for the deputy proper. Perhaps this is what he’s up to?

    I have to admit, the Tory group is thin on the ground on talent for hard-hitters for the formal Deputy Mayor post. Remember that Boris will need some wise counsel to adjust to the role from scratch. Perhaps he’s promised it to one of his rivals for the Tory nomination who’ve just been elected?

    Some of the names floated for race adviser fill me with dread too. Lee Jasper had many many faults but he knew the territory. Some of the names banded around have zero experience of equalities in the public arena.

    Would Coleman be suitable given his commitments to Barnet Council as a serving councillor and cabinet member?

    Actually, this exposes the weaknesses of the current system as the Deputy Mayor is also a member of scrutiny function. Perhaps the mayoralty would be better off with a running mate for the mayor at election time, rather than appointing from within.

  4. John

    I think it’s great that the Mayor is appointing people to help and advise him but given the lack of understanding many Londoners have over the Assembly I can’t see it helps by muddying the water by dishing out ‘Deputy Mayor’ titles to people who aren’t.

    Sue suggested ‘The Mayor’s Commissioner for Young People’ – that would fit with the other Commissioners (Transport, Fire and Police) and would be more fitting for someone who wasn’t elected.

    As for the ‘real’ DM, I happen to think Brian Coleman was a decent Chair of the Assembly and it would make sense for someone who has served on the Assembly since day one to be seen to be the Mayor’s Deputy.

  5. They borrowed the term from the U.S.

    In American cities, the title “Deputy Mayor” is often given to the mayor’s principal advisors. These are sometimes defined in law, but often not, and are almost never elected officials.

    In New York City, where the office is not even mentioned in the City Charter, there are currently seven Deputy Mayors.

  6. Manfredo

    The big difference here is that the Deputy Mayor is a statutory role in a system of Government almost barely understood by most voters.

    A lot of ‘ordinary’ voters really don’t understand the difference between their borough Mayor, the Lord Mayor and the Mayor of London and even fewer have any idea what the London Assembly does.

    To follow the US pattern and call Mayoral advisers ‘Deputy Mayor’ when that post exists in statute is just going to add to the confusion and IMO it’s regrettable that the new Mayor and his team have chosen to make it harder for Londoners to understand how the system works.

    I’ve always thought it was a sign of strength to bring in outside experts to help deliver on manifesto commitments and Mr Lewis seems like an excellent choice but as others have said there are other terms they could have used without encroaching on the label ‘Deputy Mayor’.

  7. I agree with Martin, the system is hardly understood as it is and introducing the US concept of appointed ‘Deputy Mayors’ isn’t going to help.

    In law the Deputy Mayor is the person who runs London if the Mayor is unable to fulfill his job so Londoners should be able to easily distinguish him/her from the Mayor’s appointed advisers.

  8. …and of course it doesn’t help that a BBC programme also casually announces this appointment as if he were “Deputy Mayor”. A further example of a confused mess of a system being made even less transparent by the politicians and by media which – with some reason I guess – don’t understand it!

  9. Damian Hockney says ‘ it doesn’t help that a BBC programme also casually announces this appointment as if he were “Deputy Mayor”‘

    A press release on london.gov.uk makes two references to ‘The Mayor and Deputy Mayor’ – this is going to get very confusing.

    One has to wonder if the new rgime are taking of advantage of a known lack of understanding in the mainstream media?

  10. These are just vanity titles to help advisors feel important but the $64m question is: do we know how many of them are on more than £100k?

    I see Richard Barnes has been appointed as the ‘real’ DM so at least it went to someone with experience of City Hall.

  11. Just to clarify for people these so-called Deputy Mayor’s are being appointed from the 12 staff place open to the Mayor to fill – two political advisors and 10 personal staff.

    They are therefore holding the same spaces in the GLA structure as Lee Jasper and other Livingstone era figures.

  12. we are not New York. we are London. He has named four deputy mayors. None of these are members, therefore none are deputy mayors. I will only use the mayor’s middle name-he doesnt deserve the fluffiness the B word seems to infer-so ‘de Pfeffel’ and his ‘advisors’ dont know a thing about the mayor’s powers. His manifesto showed this again and again. His comments on disallowing building on rear gardens- NOT doable (they’re classified ‘brownfield’ nationally- so not in his powers to do this). ‘Tackling’ recycling- the last mayor lobbied the govt hard-the boroughs fought a single waste authority-the mayor lost- so Boris can do little against his tory boroughs who fought against mayoral powers. ‘Protecting the greenbelt’- again, not the mayor’s powers- national legislation protects this. Clearly those writing his environmental policies at least were clueless, writing ‘fillers’. He supported the LEZ on his website, yet also stated it’s “the most draconian punitive transport measure in Europe”…i look forward to the unfolding debacle which will be this mayoralty with great interest!

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