Government plans to impose mayoral referendums have not been thought out properly and should be abandoned

As part of its flagship localism agenda, the coalition government will introduce powers to require certain authorities to adopt the mayoral model currently in place in London. The first step is to impose ‘shadow mayors’ and local referendums on mayors. George Jones and John Stewart write that proposals are actually against the principle of localism, and may even undermine the constitutional position of local government.