A SINGLE mayor should be elected for all of Yorkshire, one of the district’s MPs has suggested – rather than impose an “artificial” split on the county.

Otley MP Greg Mulholland said he accepted that devolution would be denied unless local leaders accepted a mayor “whether we like it or not”. Bradford Council leader David Green disagreed.

Liberal Democrat Mr Mulholland warned a so-called ‘metro mayor’ for West Yorkshire alone – favoured by Chancellor George Osborne – would be a mistake.

He told ministers: “Clearly, we want to have devolution. If there is to be a push towards having an elected mayor, my challenge to ministers is this.

“Instead of doing it on the basis of artificial metro areas, why can we not do what is the more obvious thing and do it on the basis of the powerhouse of Yorkshire?

“Yorkshire is the real entity. It is Yorkshire that is the brand and that has the huge economic potential for growth. It would be artificial to split the region.”

Cllr Green said: "I would not support it because all we will end up doing is creating a massive bureaucracy and administration, rather than being able to deliver good local outcomes."

He added: "It can get too diluted. That would be too large a footprint with a single mayor covering it. Clearly, part of the ongoing devolution debate is about the geography of the area that powers are going to be devolved to."

Mr Mulholland's comments come after the West Yorkshire Combined Authority dramatically abandoned its long opposition to the Chancellor imposing the ‘Boris Johnson-style’ leader.

It agreed to stage a consultation to win backing for a metro mayor after Mr Osborne insisted devolution was dead in the water unless it caved in.

The U-turn paves the way for a mayoral election as early as 2017 – a shake-up that would be imposed without a referendum of the district’s voters.

The reward could be extensive powers over transport – including to run bus services – planning, housing and the police and to integrate health and social care budgets.

Most Bradford MPs have suggested they will accept a metro mayor, provided the public backs it – but Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, and Judith Cummins, Labour for Bradford South, are opposed.

Such a mayor would rule Bradford, Leeds, Kirklees, Calderdale, Wakefield – and possibly York, which is an associate member of the combined authority.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Mulholland, the Leeds North West MP, pointed out Yorkshire’s population is on a par with Scotland, yet it had “nothing like the powers”.

He told ministers: “We still have to come cap in hand to the department for transport to ask for the much needed rail link to Leeds Bradford airport.

“Given the fairly modest cost, we should be able to deliver that ourselves.”

Mr Mulholland also urged his own much-shrunken party to be far more radical on devolution, saying: “I do not think that our manifesto was sufficiently radical or clear.”