Local oversight must not come at the expense of parliamentary scrutiny

New oversight mechanism for metro mayors in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands placates Conservative MPs and Whitehall officials, but restricting scrutiny to these areas is not enough. MPs should be given more power to scrutinise or parliamentary privilege should be extended to devolved parlia

March 15, 2023 . 4:37 PM

1 min read

Greater powers for metro mayors will come with new layer of scrutiny in the form of quarterly select committee-style grillings by local MPs.
This new oversight mechanism has been introduced to placate both Conservative MPs in the Greater Manchester area and Whitehall officials.
Restricting the pool of scrutinisers to the Greater Manchester area or conurbation surrounding Birmingham is not going to result in robust scrutiny of either Andy Burnham or Andy Street.
It would be better to give regular select committees more power, or to extend parliamentary privilege to the devolved parliaments.
British politics has a corrosive feature of pressure on MPs to become super-councillors, and we don't need another mechanism pushing MPs to be more parochial.