In 2022, the Conservative government began a “devolution revolution”, promising greater powers and funding to councils and ‘combined authorities’.

Conservative ministers acknowledged that Cornwall Council needed more money and power to tackle the housing crisis, make the transition to affordable green energy, and boost the local economy. But there was a catch: This power and money was only available if the leader of Cornwall Council was replaced by a “directly elected mayor”. This might make sense in areas like Devon where there are eleven separate district, city, county and unitary councils, each with their own leader. But Cornwall has had a single, unified council since 2009, so there is already just one leader.

Directly elected mayors cannot be removed by elected councillors, no matter how poorly they perform or how badly they behave. Inevitably this would mean that the concerns of some communities (particularly those in rural and peripheral areas) would be overlooked. And when the mayor finally faced the voters, it would be under the hopelessly flawed ‘first past the post’ system. So even if 70 per cent voted against the incumbent, they could still stay in power with just 30 per cent of the vote if the opposition was split between several parties.

The Liberal Democrats are firm supporters of devolution (the principle that decisions should be taken as close as possible to the people they affect); and opponents of Directly Elected Mayors (because we oppose power being concentrated in too few hands).

Crucially, Labour councillors told us a future Labour government would offer even more devolution, but without the requirement for a directly elected mayor.

A significant number of Conservative councillors also opposed a mayor for Cornwall, so in the end, the Conservative “Devolution Deal” was rejected.

Now the Labour government has swept to power in Westminster, and deputy prime Minister Angela Rayner is indeed promising a devolution revolution of her own. But before she has even told us what money or power is on the table, she has written to every council in the country to set out her two top priorities:

Not only will we be required to have a directly elected mayor, we will also have to merge with Devon, and possibly Somerset and Dorset too! If we aren’t prepared to create a combined authority, the Government will punish us by withholding the very powers and funding which they say we need.

This is a blatant contradiction of everything Cornwall’s Labour councillors and candidates told us over the past year. Maybe there’s been a big misunderstanding: Maybe Angela Rayner doesn’t know that Cornwall effectively became a combined authority in 2009. Both our Liberal Democrat MPs are making the case to the deputy Prime Minister that we are big enough and unique enough to deserve devolution on our own. Will our four Labour MPs join this campaign? Will they have any influence over the leaders of their party? The clock is ticking…