Bradford will get a seat at the top table of England’s leading cities – but only if residents vote for a Mayor, the Prime Minister said yesterday.

David Cameron announced that he would chair the new ‘Cabinet of Mayors’, which would meet at least every six months to swap ideas and lobby ministers for powers.

His intervention was an attempt to persuade voters in Bradford and nine other cities to choose an elected mayor when they go to the polls on May 3.

He was speaking yesterday after calling a delegation from Bradford and the other cities to press the case for a Yes vote and encourage more candidates to come forward.

Mr Cameron said: “I want, when we have a good number of mayors around the country, to bring them together so we can swap ideas and experience and initiatives.

“We can really make sure that central government is not just helping to deliver these referendums, but is also going to deliver extra powers, extra resources to those cities and to those mayors, so they can get even more things done.”

Calling for ‘yes’ votes, Mr Cameron said mayors would “change the political culture of Britain, with more great leaders in our cities, more economic dynamism”.

He was joined in making the case for a Yes vote by Lord Heseltine, a long-standing advocate of elected mayors, as well as London Mayor Boris Johnson.

One of the Bradford representatives, Bradford Chamber president Stephen Wright, said his organisation was “not convinced” about the case for a mayor.

He said: “One of the things we are concerned about is that we could get a person with no political view, a minor celebrity as we have seen in other campaigns instead of someone with substance who can lead Bradford as we have a huge budget and are a big area.

“The Prime Minister gave a convincing case, certainly more than I had given credit to mayors before. However, we still remain unconvinced.”

But Councillor Simon Cooke (Con, Bingley Rural) said: “The Council has not done a good job so let’s give someone else a go. If it does not work we can change back. It would be a missed opportunity not to change the way Bradford is governed.”

And Saleem Kader, managing director of Bombay Stores Wholesale, Woodhead Road, Bradford, said it had been a “great honour” to be invited. He added: “In Bradford we have a lot of issues that need to be tackled and leaving it to politicians it will not happen.

“This is an ideal opportunity for David Cameron to hand power back to cities. The mayor does not need to be a political leader it could be a business leader.”