The emasculation of MPs runs deeper though, as public sector organisations are rarely, if ever, under any statutory obligation to consult or involve an MP. It’s into this decrepit field of mixed messages and ill-defined roles, that these new truly substantial and powerful unitary authorities and metro mayors will be birthed. For me, MPs must not be an afterthought tasked merely with scrutiny as this risks being a backward-looking, box ticking role. My hunch is that ‘the system’ wants a unit of political power that it can more easily engage with going forward. You can see why Number 10 would prefer to deal with 40 or so metro mayors, not the 650 MPs or thousands of councillors.