London’s first directly elected female mayor has surrendered most of her executive powers less than six months into the job.
Rokhsana Fiaz, the mayor of Newham, has agreed to delegate executive decision-making to her cabinet of senior councillors.
Elected mayors usually hold more power than traditional council leaders because they can approve major plans alone. But Labour’s Ms Fiaz has now pledged that significant decisions will in future be made with a majority vote of the mayor and cabinet — diminishing her own power over the borough.
She said: “This represents the most fundamental change to the elected mayoral model since its introduction [in Newham] way back in 2002.
“This scheme of delegation essentially moves all the decision-making that is held by one person, me, to the entire cabinet, which includes six members. It is all part of the process of bringing good governance, better decision-making and transparency to the way in which we do business.”
Ms Fiaz was elected by residents in May, winning 73.4 per cent of the vote after ousting Britain’s longest-serving elected mayor Sir Robin Wales as Labour candidate in a fierce party selection battle.
The former charity and public relations worker was backed by Momentum and given support by its founder Jon Lansman during the contest. John Gray, cabinet member for housing on Newham council, said: “It is not often that politicians give up power.
"It is all part of the process of bringing good governance and transparency to the way we do business"
Rokhsana Fiaz
“Effectively the mayor is still the mayor but she has delegated power to make decisions to the whole cabinet. We have collective cabinet responsibility, which I think is something we all welcome.” After her election Ms Fiaz promised to eventually hold a public referendum on Newham’s directly elected mayor model.
She described herself as “agnostic” about the position and said the vote would be part of a “democracy review” in the borough. The referendum is likely to take place two years into her term.
