Liverpool was an
ancient borough, having been granted its first
charter by
King John in 1207. It had a
mayor from at least 1292.
Municipal borough Liverpool was reformed to become a
municipal borough in 1836 under the
Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country. It was then governed by a body formally called the 'mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Liverpool', generally known as the corporation or town council. As part of the same reforms, the borough boundaries were enlarged to match the larger
Liverpool parliamentary constituency, which had been expanded in 1832 to include the neighbouring parishes of
Everton and
Kirkdale and part of
West Derby. The corporation created
a police force in 1836. : Council's main offices 1868–2016|242x242px Liverpool was granted
city status in 1880, after which the corporation was also known as the city council. When elected county councils were established in 1889, Liverpool was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it became a
county borough, independent from the new
Lancashire County Council, whilst remaining part of the
geographical county of
Lancashire. In 1893 the city was granted the right to appoint a
lord mayor. The city boundaries were enlarged on several occasions, notably gaining
Wavertree,
Walton and parts of
Toxteth and
West Derby in 1895,
Fazakerley in 1905,
Allerton,
Childwall and
Woolton in 1913, the rest of West Derby in 1928, and
Speke in 1932. Liverpool's
borough and city statuses and its lord mayoralty passed to the reformed district and its council. From 1974 until 1986 the council was a lower-tier authority, with upper-tier functions provided by
Merseyside County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986 and its functions passed to Merseyside's five borough councils, including Liverpool, with some services provided through joint committees. During the 1980s, the
Militant group gained control of Liverpool's Labour Party. Under their leadership the council attempted to challenge the national government on several issues, including
refusing to set a budget in 1985. The leadership of the national Labour Party was drawn into the controversy, ultimately expelling members of Militant, including the council's deputy leader,
Derek Hatton, in 1986. In 2012 the council introduced the position of
Mayor of Liverpool as a
directly elected mayor to serve as the council's political leader instead of having a
leader of the council chosen by the councillors. The position was separate from the more ceremonial role of the Lord Mayor. The directly elected mayor position was abolished in 2023 and the position of leader of the council was reinstated. Since 2014 the council has been a member of the
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, which has been led by the directly elected
Mayor of the Liverpool City Region since 2017. The combined authority provides strategic leadership and co-ordination for certain functions across the region, but Liverpool City Council continues to be responsible for most local government functions. The council's chief executive, Ged Fitzgerald, was suspended in 2017 and subsequently resigned in 2018 following an investigation by
Lancashire Constabulary into financial irregularities relating to a joint project between
Lancashire County Council and
British Telecom (BT) during Fitzgerald's tenure as chief executive of the county council. The police investigation subsequently widened to investigate alleged criminality at the city council and the Merseyside pension fund too. In 2020, it was reported that the city council's accounts since 2015 had not been signed off by its auditors on account of the 'complex ongoing police investigation'. In December 2020, the elected mayor,
Joe Anderson, was arrested as part of an anti-corruption investigation. The Labour Party suspended Anderson on news of his arrest. He did not resign as mayor but stood back from active duties, handing effective control to the deputy mayor,
Wendy Simon, for the remainder of his term of office to May 2021. As of April 2024 no charges had been brought against him, but the investigation had yet to conclude. On 24 March 2021, the
Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government,
Robert Jenrick, announced that he was appointing commissioners to oversee some of the authority's functions for at least 3 years. This was following an investigation, commissioned in December 2020 that found there were "multiple apparent failures" and a "deeply concerning picture of mismanagement" in the council. The commissioners remained in post until June 2024. Following improvements in the council's performance and management, the intervention was then scaled back to less direct supervision, due to last until March 2025. ==Governance==