"BETTER decisions are more likely to be made by people with skin in the game".

Those were the words of Labour Leader Sir Kier Starmer talking ahead of the mayoral elections in York and Northshire next week. 

He was speaking about his plans to extend mayoral powers if elected to higher office – a decision particularly pertinent with the upcoming elections looming on May 2.  

The Labour leader was speaking to a group of young journalists during a visit to The Northern Echo offices in Darlington, and he spoke about about his rail nationalisation plans, climate change, and his commitment to “national renewal” across the nation, but especially in our region.

His visit to Darlington follows multiple across the North of England - including one to Cawood, close to Selby, earlier this week where he shared his plans to tackle rural crime. 

Speaking with The Press on the topic of further powers for Yorkshire, the Labour leader didn’t dismiss the idea of further devolution but was quick to shift focus to expanding the powers of current mayors saying: “I think we should give more power to our mayors.

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“At the moment, they’ve all got slightly different powers, which is slightly frustrating, and eventually we’ve got to align all that, but I don’t want the five years to be about just aligning powers. We’ve got to push the powers to where they are now, but they’re a force for good mayors and I think they can work really well.”

When asked about if he expected a new mayor to be elected in his North Yorkshire and York mayoral candidate, David Skaith, Sir Keir was quick to sing his praises saying: “I think David’s really good.”

At the moment, metro mayors work with local authority leaders to create an overarching strategy for the region but under a Labour government, there could be further development.

With the inaugural mayoral elections set for next Thursday (May 2), voters are set to take to the polls with Labour candidate David Skaith ready to go up against Felicity Cunliffe-Lister (Liberal Democrat), Keane Duncan (Conservative), Kevin Foster (Green), Paul Haslam (Independent), and Keith Tordoff (Independent).

Speaking about the decision to decentralise power away from Westminster, Sir Keir was enthusiastic stating: “I think better decisions are more likely to be made by people with skin in the game, therefore it’s got to be an empowering thing.”

York Press: (L-R) Gavin Foster, Keir Starmer and Chris Lloyd at The Northern Echo, Darlington(L-R) Gavin Foster, Keir Starmer and Chris Lloyd at The Northern Echo, Darlington (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

He then went on to say: “I think mayors are a very good example because what I want where we’ve got them is for mayors to link up with local, central government with them working together.

“I think if we do that, mayors can have a bigger role in housing, bigger role in the local economy, have a bigger role in skills.

“We need to build on that model – more power, resources and decision making to our mayors, but not our mayors working on their own: our mayors have a great convening power to bring businesses together, communities together, other politicians together, around a plan for each area.

“Each area should have its own growth plan which is contributed to by those who are here and the government should come along and turbocharge that plan.”