The London Daily News

Editorial

Mayor Johnson will be pushing for a more powerful role, with plans to devolve more power from Whitehall to City Hall, scrapping the London Development Agency along with the Metropolitan Police Authority, making the Mayor of London one of the most important posts in British domestic politics.

Under plans that will be announced today at City Hall, Mayor Johnson will seek in the first meeting of the London congress of borough leaders to transfer power and responsibility from Whitehall and its "quangoes progressively downwards to City Hall, to London boroughs and to neighbourhoods" is how Eric Pickles the communities and local government secretary described the move to the FT today.

London is one of the globes most important capital cities, and needs a coherent and confident outlook, its mayor should therefore have the power to police the city, manage traffic, deal with environmental issues in a way that emulates the role of a CEO of a major corporation or the head of state.  Mayor Johnson in the FT said:

"The capital is a global powerhouse with a population as large as Wales and Scotland combined, yet despite providing this world city with clear leadership the mayoralty has few formal powers despite substantial informal powers.  This will no longer do".