Overview

• In July 2025, the government introduced the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill to reinstate the supplementary vote for mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections.
• The Bill reverses Priti Patel’s 2022 change to first-past-the-post and brings back a two-preference ballot format.
• Labour frames the move as a devolutionary reform aimed at rebalancing regional divides, and the Electoral Reform Society has welcomed it as a boost to democratic choice.
• Reform UK and some Conservative MPs argue the timing suggests a partisan tactic to blunt Reform’s recent wins in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull & East Yorkshire.
• The legislation now advances to parliamentary debate and committee scrutiny ahead of its expected enactment before the 2028 London mayoral election.