Labour mayors endorse Michael Marra’s case for greater devolution

The supplied report says Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig and Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotherham have backed Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra’s proposal to transfer more power and funding from London and Edinburgh to councils, colleges and industries.

Verified facts: Devolution was identified as one of the central pledges of Marra’s leadership campaign, which he won just over a week before the report was published on 28 September 2026. Marra argued that excessive centralisation has limited communities’ control over their daily lives. Craig and Rotherham each said their city regions had benefited from devolved powers. Their examples included bringing buses under public control, transport development, investment in skills and infrastructure, and housing provision. Craig also said Greater Manchester’s economy had grown at almost twice the UK rate, while the report attributed this claim to her.

Interpretation: The mayors’ support gives Marra’s proposal backing from Labour figures presenting existing English city-region arrangements as a model for Scotland. Their argument is that devolving authority and resources to regions could improve local economic decision-making and enable communities to shape development more directly. This is an advocacy position expressed by Marra and the mayors, not independent evidence in the supplied material that the proposed approach would produce the same outcomes in Scotland.

Uncertainty: The supplied evidence does not specify the publication’s name, provide independent assessments of the economic or policy claims, or set out the detailed design, funding or timetable for Marra’s proposals. It therefore supports the existence of the endorsement and the arguments made, but not a conclusion about whether the proposals would be implemented or achieve the stated results.