On 6 May, around 20 million people in England will be voting to elect a metro mayor to lead on making important decisions at the local level in their city region. While the position of Mayor of London has existed since 2000, this year, Greater Manchester voters will be electing their metro mayor for the second time round and it will be the first election of its kind taking place in West Yorkshire.

What’s the current state of play in these three places? Which candidates are making waves? What challenges will they face post-election?

For this episode of City Talks, Andrew Carter is joined by Francesca Gains, Professor of Public Policy and Academic Co-Director of Policy@Manchester at the University of Manchester, Rob Parsons, Political Editor of The Yorkshire Post and Richard Brown, Interim Director at Centre for London, to get a sense of the state of play in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and London.

The Yorkshire Post’s political podcast ‘Pod’s Own Country’ can be accessed here.

Richard Brown is also co-author of ‘London’s Mayor at 20: Governing a Global City in the 21st Century’.

This episode is part of the Centre for Cities City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.