Two candidates have been selected so far:
The leader of Southampton City Council, Lorna Fielker, stepped down in July 2025 to pursue the Labour nomination according to the BBC.`
The Hampshire and Solent region is set to gain its own powers over transport, housing, education, healthcare and local economic development.
The current councils have submitted their proposals of how to combine existing councils into larger entities which match the governments 500,000 population target.
The initial options all treated the Isle of Wight as a special case which will retain its own council because of its geography.
And Portsmouth/Havant/Fareham/Gosport were all combined together in all of the initial options.
In the final proposal there are also two other combined councils; South East Hampshire covering Southampton, Eastleigh, New Forest and Test Valley, and North and Mid Hampshire covering Winchester, Basingstoke and Deane, Hart and East Hampshire.
Having submitted their joint proposal, it seems that some non-Labour run councils are getting cold feet.
Isle of Wight East MP Joe Robertson first advocated voting against the devolution deal as it didn't include ferries in the transport powers. Then once the council had voted against, he sent a letter to the Local Government minister asking for the Isle of Wight to remain a Unitary authority!
I wonder if Donna Jones would have been so keen to share a stage with this MP if she'd known what he was up to.
Liberal Democrate run Portsmouth City Council has also objected on the grounds that it is a unitary authority and it's doing fine thanks.