Should the UK devolve more powers from Westminster to regional mayors and councils?

Devolving power away from Westminster carried the chamber, 39 votes to 27, an 18-point margin that counts as a solid if not overwhelming win on this platform. On a question that touches the Burnham "No 10 North" pitch and the perennial argument about where sovereignty should sit in Britain, a clear majority sided with pushing power outward rather than defending the centre.

The generational pattern is the story here. Voters in their mid-thirties to mid-forties backed devolution 9-4, and those in their late fifties and early sixties went further, 11-5, both comfortably above 65% support. But the 25-34 bracket bucked the trend entirely, splitting 8-9 against, the only cohort where more voters chose to keep power at Westminster than to give it away. The over-65s, small in number, ended up dead even.

That younger-middle split cuts against the usual devolution-versus-centralisation script, where enthusiasm for local power is often assumed to rise with age and rootedness. Here it is the settled middle-aged voter, not the young or the elderly, who is most persuaded that mayors and councils should have more say, perhaps a proxy for who feels most let down by Westminster on tax and spending amid the £5bn defence-driven black hole.

Men backed devolution more readily than women, 61% to 54%, but the gender gap is modest next to the age fracture — on this vote, generation split the room far more than sex did.