Liverpool to abandon promised referendum on controversial mayor position

Voters were told they’d get say on if to keep directly elected post but now current mayor says it’s unaffordable and consultation will be held instead

Joanne Anderson, the current directly elected mayor of Liverpool (PA)

Liverpool residents are to be denied a promised referendum on whether the city should continue to be led by a directly elected mayor after current mayor Joanne Anderson said the process would be too expensive.

Voters were told there would a poll on the hugely controversial position shortly after the previous incumbent Joe Anderson – no relation – was arrested on corruption charges in December 2020.

Ms Anderson has herself previously campaigned to scrap the position and return to a ‘leader’ system – whereby elected councillors choose who tops the authority. Speaking to The Independent ahead of her election in May last year, she said she was “fully committed to sacking myself”.

But the promised referendum will now be scrapped, and a public consultation held instead in a bid to save the cash-strapped Labour-run authority around £350,000.

Ms Anderson said: “We believe that doing a consultation will do the same job and provide the same results as a referendum. What is really important is giving the whole city a say and the Labour group has accepted this. Once we get those results we can take action accordingly.

"In this budgeting time, we think this gets the same job."

Some insiders have suggested she and her cabinet would prefer to revert to the old ‘leader’ system - used here until 2012 - but had become concerned a referendum might not give them the result they wanted. Conversely, others have suggested scrapping the promised poll is a first step to Ms Anderson retaining the mayoral position.

When asked, she herself said: “The outcome to me is less important than the city getting a say, I want what the city wants."

But the decision has raised eyebrows with many in the city.

Professor Jonathan Tongue, professor in politics at Liverpool University, said: “This is running from democracy and it amazes me. With a referendum you would get at least one in three people in Liverpool voting on it. With a consultation, you’ll get a handful of the obsessed who will respond who are not in any way representative of the city. And the idea you make a sound judgement from that is frankly nonsense.”

The consultation - which will be rubber stamped at a full council meeting on Wednesday - will conclude in autumn, with the expectation that a decision on the post will be decided in time for next year’s local elections.