My Lords, I will address some of the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, in the course of moving his amendment. He said that you cannot get rid of mayors. In any elected office that I can think of, you can get rid of leaders or back-bench councillors in two ways: first, through the party’s electoral or selection arrangements, and, secondly, by the ballot box. Therefore, just as with local authorities, so with the office of mayor there is the ability to get rid of the mayor.
The noble Lord also talked about the power of recall. Again, referencing it back to local authorities, there is not a power of recall within local authority arrangements, either. Obviously, they are talking about this in the House of Commons: there is not a power of recall in local government. The build-up is incredible, but later on in the debate we will talk about scrutiny—and there is an ability to scrutinise both local authority leaders and an elected mayor.
The noble Lord’s third point was on limiting a mayor to two terms of office. First, in this country there are no other arrangements that replicate that, but I thought of two leaders, one of whom I will name, the other of whom I will not. Richard Leese is one of them; he has been leader for almost 20 years now, and his continuity within Manchester City Council has enhanced the city greatly. I will not name another local authority leader, who was in power for 35 years; I do not think that a single year of his leadership was beneficial to the local area—which is why I will not name him. Therefore, I can see that that could be true in some areas. However, it is also for local electors and political parties to make that change if they so wish.