You may think our beloved Mayor is the most powerful politician in London, but he has a rival - a chap by the name of Tony McNulty.

Mr McNulty (Lab Harrow East), a welfare minister, doubles up as "The Minister for London", supposedly giving the capital a larger voice in the machinery of Government.

Last week he attended the first meeting of the Council of Regional Ministers, a new body set up by Gordon Brown as part of the Prime Minister's efforts to steer Britain through the financial crisis.

It includes the other Ministers of the English regions (London is considered a region) as well as Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Ministers.

A press release issued by the Government's News Distribution Service states: "Helping savers, small businesses and homeowners in London through the worldwide economic problems was top of the agenda."

But what is Mr McNulty going to do about it? As Minister for London he has no powers whatsoever.

As blogger Dizzy points out, the clue comes later on in the release, when it states that the council's remit includes: "[to] disseminate key messages for Regional Ministers to use in their discussions in the regions. This will include the narrative agreed by the NEC."

The NEC in this case is the National Economic Council - another of Mr Brown's new committees - which includes senior Cabinet members but not Mr McNulty.

In other words, his role is not actually to tell the Government what we think, but to tell us what the Government thinks.

It gets worse. He has two assistants - Labour MPs Karen Buck (Regents Park and Kensington North) and Clive Efford (Eltham).

Another press release, this time from the Labour Party, states that these two will "will liaise with and support the work of regional ministers and national ministers."

Oh yes, and they will also "help coordinate the Labour Party's campaigns in regions and nations, with a special emphasis on economic issues".

So their role is actually to pump out party propaganda.

Of course, Labour is entitled to campaign, and to appoint people to lead its campaigns in London. That's part of democracy.

But dressing it up as an attempt to help us pay our mortgages is wretched.

If anyone can prove me wrong with real examples of anything useful Mr McNulty has done for the capital, do let me know.

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