Politics Labour challenged from all directions in race for the metro mayoralty

PEOPLE in the West of England are to go back to the polls again on May 1, and for many it will be for the third time in just under a year.

- Tristan CORK

But while 2024 was the year half the world voted in elections, for people in Bristol, Bath, North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire, the vote for the next metro mayor could actually have the biggest say on their day-to-day lives.

While many experts and commentators will say the vote on May 1 has Labour as the favourite, it could be possible to make a coherent argument that candidates from five parties - that’s Labour, the Lib Dems, Conservatives, Reform UK and the Green Party - are in with a chance of their candidate being elected as the metro mayor from 2025 to 2029.

The Metro Mayor role is arguably the most important single elected position in the entire region - even more so after the ending of Bristol's 12-year-long period being run by a directly-elected mayor.

They have responsibility over everything from attracting business investment to how many and where new homes might be built and, most directly impactful, public transport. In other parts of the country, regional mayors like Andy Burnham in Manchester, Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire and Sadiq Khan in London are perhaps the most well known politicians who bear the biggest responsibility and the most power over people’s lives.

In the West of England, the region has been slower to embrace the metro mayor concept. Little of impact happened in Conservative Tim Bowles’s time in charge between 2017 and 2021, although he did usher in a Bristol and Bath-wide e-scooter pilot scheme.

He was replaced in 2021 by Labour's Dan Norris. When he was asked what his biggest achievement was in the four years he’s metro mayor between 2021 and 2025, Mr Norris thought for a second and said it would be a scheme that gives everyone free bus travel for the whole month when it's their birthday. News of his arrest earlier this month on suspicion of rape, kidnap and child sex offences shocked everyone involved in politics in the region.